Eiichi Yaminishi, October 16, 1963: Difference between revisions

{{NMletter}}

Dear Eiichi,<ref> Mailer never met Eiichi Yaminishi, his longtime Japanese translator. The book referred to in the first paragraph is ''The Presidential Papers'', which was published on 8 November 1963. It contains his account of the first heavyweight boxing match between [[w:Floyd Patterson|Floyd Patterson]] (1935-) and [[w:Sonny Liston|Sonny Liston]](1932-1970) on 25 September 1962, titled ''Ten Thousand Words a Minute'', first published in [[w:Esquire|Esquire]] in February 1963. Mailer did not incorporate an account of the second fight into ''An American Dream'' (the “short novel”), but the fact that he was considering doing so shows how open-ended his plan was at this point. He did, however, use portions of an essay tracing his cross-country trip with Beverly Bentley in the summer of 1963, including his stop in Las Vegas for the fight, in the novel’s epilogue. Mailer submitted each installment two months before ''Esquire''’s publication date (two weeks earlier than the month on the cover), except for the last three, all of which were late. The final installment was about ten days late.</ref>

This is dictated in a great rush, for the burden of writing ten thousand good finished words a month in a novel to which I cannot return takes up so much time that I cannot afford the leisure for time now of a quiet correspondence. So please, as ever, accept my warmest good wishes for you and your family.

<br/>

P.S. That figure I named is of course not being paid by ''Esquire'', but by the publisher, Dial Press, and by the paperback company, Dell. If you wish a note added to ''Ten Thousand Words A Minute'', perhaps it might be a good idea to insert it yourself, just saying that I’m working on a novel which may include the second Patterson-Liston fight.

P.P.S. I never took the opportunity to thank you for the list you provided me, but it was most entertaining and interesting to read, and I sent a copy to my publisher.

{{Letterhead end}}