Diana Trilling, July 14, 1965

From Project Mailer
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NORMAN MAILER’s Letters
607 Commercial Street
Provincetown, Massachusetts
July 14, 1965

Dear Diana,

Thank you for the clipping and the nice reports. I’m not sure I know what you mean by the absence of a Marlow,[1] in An American Dream. Superficially it seems to me that Rojack embodies a sufficient amount of civilization to avoid meaninglessness, but to defend that in detail means a long letter, and then we shall both be breaking our vows to write many pages this summer and few letters. Therefore I save the discussion for the pleasure of seeing you and Lionel in September. By the way, our place is on the sea and most agreeable. I hope you and Lionel (and Jim if he’s so inclined) are in the mood to come here when you get back.

Love,
Norman

P.S. There’s a somewhat unintegrated book by a man named Christopher Lasch, called if I remember The New Radicalism in America, but it has a very good chapter on Mabel Dodge Luhan[2] in which Lawrence figures prominently, and I think you might enjoy it.

This page is part of
An American Dream Expanded.

Notes

  1. The “Marlow” Trilling refers to is the narrator-participant used by Joseph Conrad in several fictional works he wrote based on his seafaring experiences: “Youth,” Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness and Chance.
  2. Mabel Dodge Luhan was a supporter of D. H. Lawrence when he lived in New Mexico.