91.27

“Norman Mailer on Harlot’s Ghost.” Random House Publicity Flyer, 3 pp. Adapted and expanded version of two question-and-answer periods conducted by Mailer at the Poetry Center of the 92nd Street YM-YWHA, New York, on 25 February. No date; probably appeared just before or on publication date (2 October) of 91.26. Mailer explains why he used the real names for some characters in 91.26, and fictional names for others, his sources, and the working title of the sequel: Harlot’s Grave. He also talks about whether he could ever have been a CIA man: “I’ve always had the feeling that if I’d grown up in a different family with a wholly different background and different politics, that I might have been in the CIA. Because I confess rankly to loving all that duplicity, deceit, manipulation, double-dealing—all of it—in the name of a higher purpose.”