On 25 May, Mailer receives a $1,500 award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters.

In July, covers the Democratic National Convention at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles for Esquire, and publishes "Superman Comes to the Supermarket" (60.9), an admiring portrait of J.F.K., in the November issue. The essay is generally seen as one of foundation stones of the New Journalism.

In September, the Mailers move to an apartment at 250 West 94th Street.

On 20 November, after a party in this apartment where he planned to announce his candidacy for mayor of New York, a drunken Mailer stabs Adele with a penknife after an early morning argument, and is committed for psychiatric observation to the violent ward of Bellevue Hospital for 17 days, 22 November to 8 December.