07.14

“Still a Brawler at Heart.” Article by Simon Houpt. Globe and Mail (Toronto), 27 January, 4. Account of an on-stage conversation between Sam Tanenhaus, editor of the New York Times Book Review and Mailer on 23 January, and at a Random House press conference the next day. Mailer says of Hitler’s father Alois, “There was never a cook or chambermaid who was safe around him.” He adds: “This is not myself.” At the press conference, he says that Hitler did damage to the way Jews now think: “there’s too much of that notion: Is this good for the Jews? The moment something comes up that might be slightly unfavorable for the Jews, all thought shuts down.” Mailer says it is too late for him to write an autobiography and that he has no real interest in himself “as a literary subject.”