72.7
Existential Errands. Boston: Little, Brown, 17 April; Sevenoaks, Kent: New English Library, August 1982. Miscellany, 365 pp., $7.95.
The British edition combines 72.7 with The Short Fiction of Norman Mailer (67.11) under the title The Essential Mailer (82.19).
Dedication: “To Barbara, to Susan, to Adeline, and to Al.” Rpt: 98.7 (partial).
| “ | This collection covers pieces written almost entirely in the last five years, a period in which The Deer Park as a play[1] was given its last draft and then produced, Why Are We in Vietnam?[2] was written and then The Armies of the Night,[3] Miami and the Siege of Chicago,[4] Of a Fire on the Moon[5] and The Prisoner of Sex.[6] Three movies[7] were also made. So it is a period when, with every thought of beginning a certain big novel which had been promised for a long time, the moot desire to have one’s immediate say on contemporary matters kept diverting the novelistic impulse into journalism. | ” |
| — Mailer, 72.7 | ||
Of the six books named above all but The Deer Park: A Play were nominated for a National Book Award in four different categories. The Armies of the Night won for arts and letters, and a Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction as well.
Cover of the first edition.
Notes
Bibliography
Reviews
- Buchanan, Cynthia (April 16, 1972). "We Read Mailer because He Is Our Genius". New York Times Book Review. pp. 27–28. Retrieved 2018-12-18. Positive.
- Edwards, Thomas (June 15, 1972). "Keeping Up with Mailer". New York Review of Books. pp. 21–22. Retrieved 2018-12-18. Mixed.
- Lask, Thomas (May 5, 1972). "Review of Existential Errands". New York Times. p. 38. Retrieved 2018-12-18. Mixed.
- Maloff, Saul (June 30, 1972). "Review of Existential Errands". Commonweal. p. 361. Mixed.
- Oberbeck, S. K. (April 30, 1972). "Like an Ahab Hunting Many Whales". Washington Post Book World. p. 5.
Essays
- Adams, Laura (1977). Existential Battles: the Growth of Norman Mailer. Athens: Ohio UP. pp. 169–171.
- Radford, Jean (1975). Norman Mailer: A Critical Study. London; Basingstoke: Macmillan Press. pp. 170–175.