63.37

The Presidential Papers. New York: Putnam’s, 8 November. London: Deutsch, late April or early May 1964, with new preface (same as Bantam edition). Miscellany, 310 pp.

Republished with “Special Preface” by Mailer. New York: Bantam, May 1964 (64.15); republished with new preface by Mailer. New York: Berkley, October 1976 (76.13). Dedication: “This book is dedicated to some ladies who have aided and impeded the author in his composition. They are: Beverly Rentz Sugarfoot Bentley; Jean Louise Slugger Campbell; my daughters: Susan, Dandy, Betsy, Kate; my adopted daughter: Jeanne H.W. the Invaluable Johnson; my secretary: Anne Morse Towel-Boy Barry; my sister: Barbara Jane Alson; and Sadie, and Hetty Diggs, and Every-Mae.” Discarded titles: “The Devil Revisited”; “Frankie and Johnny, Or, The Murder of Good Ideas.” Mailer gives dates and details of composition for the volume’s contents in “Appendix B—Projects and Places.” Rpt: Several selections appear in 13.1, and truncated form in 98.7. See 1963 entries and 14.4.

“ Its anxiety is its anxiety, and its half-satisfied ambition is very much its throttled ambition, but for anyone who would like a clue to the mood of the country in the summer of 1963 just before that autumn of assassination which would change the psychic history of America forever, the book is a document. Besides—I whisper it—The Presidential Papers does have a couple of the better pieces I’ve written. ” — Norman Mailer, 76.13

• 

Bibliography

Reviews

• Decter, Midge (February 1964). "Mailer's Campaign". Commentary. pp. 83–85. Positive. Rpt: Lucid (1971).
• Galbraith, John Kenneth (November 17, 1963). "The Kennedys Didn't Reply". New York Times Review of Books. p. 6. Negative.
• Gilman, Richard (February 8, 1964). "Why Mailer Wants to Be President". New Republic. pp. 17–224.
• Miller, Jonathan (1954). "Black-Mailer". Partisan Review. pp. 103–107. Mixed.
• Wills, Garry (January 14, 1964). "The Art of Not Writing Novels". National Review. pp. 31–33. Negative.

Essays

• Early, Gerald (1994). "The Unquiet Kingdom of Providence: The Patterson-Liston Fight". The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting, Literature and Modern American Culture. Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press. pp. 46–65.
• Leeds, Barry H. (1969). The Structured Vision of Norman Mailer. New York: NYU Press. pp. 223–2246.
• Lennon, J. Michael. "Triumph at the Biltmore". In Wiener, Nina. Norman Mailer. JFK. Superman Comes to the Supermarket. Los Angeles: Taschen. pp. 9–14.
• Merrill, Robert (1992). "Mailer's Miscellanies: The Art of Self-Revelation". Norman Mailer Revisited. Boston: Twayne Publishers. pp. 83–104. ISBN 080573967X.
• Solotaroff, Robert (1973). Down Mailer's Way. Urbana; London: University of Illinois Press. pp. 137–143.