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{{Byline|last=Lennon|first=J. Michael|abstract=An outline of Mailer’s complex and rich history of occupations and experiences, as revealed in the stunning breadth and depth of the holdings in the Texas Mailer Archives.|note=Harry Ransom Humanities Center, Flair Conference: Norman Mailer and America in Conflict, | {{Byline|last=Lennon|first=J. Michael|abstract=An outline of Mailer’s complex and rich history of occupations and experiences, as revealed in the stunning breadth and depth of the holdings in the Texas Mailer Archives.|note=Harry Ransom Humanities Center, Flair Conference: Norman Mailer and America in Conflict, {{date|2006-11-10|MDY}}.|url=https://prmlr.us/mr01len}} | ||
1974, a collection of essays titled ''Will the Real Norman Mailer Please Stand Up'', edited by Laura Adams, appeared.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Adams |editor-first=Laura |date=1974 |title=Will the Real Norman Mailer Please Stand Up |location=Port Washington, N.Y. |publisher=Kennikat Press |isbn=0804690669 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8BNbAAAAMAAJ |ref=harv}}</ref> She borrowed her title from a 1969 film documentary about Mailer.<ref>Allen King, Director (1968).</ref> The book and the film share the conviction that Mailer is a whirligig whose only identity was the lack of a dominant one. He has been, on different days (and sometimes the same one) a novelist, actor, movie director, pugilist, political candidate,<ref>In 1969, Mailer ran for the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City; he came | {{dc|dc=I|n {{date|1974}}, a collection of essays}} titled ''Will the Real Norman Mailer Please Stand Up'', edited by Laura Adams, appeared.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Adams |editor-first=Laura |date=1974 |title=Will the Real Norman Mailer Please Stand Up |location=Port Washington, N.Y. |publisher=Kennikat Press |isbn=0804690669 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8BNbAAAAMAAJ |ref=harv}}</ref> She borrowed her title from a 1969 film documentary about Mailer.<ref>Allen King, Director ({{date|1968}}).</ref> The book and the film share the conviction that Mailer is a whirligig whose only identity was the lack of a dominant one. He has been, on different days (and sometimes the same one) a novelist, actor, movie director, pugilist, political candidate,<ref>In 1969, Mailer ran for the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City; he came | ||
in fourth in a field of five.</ref> political gadfly, public intellectual, sexual warrior, street debater and White Negro. At various times, he has also been a tightrope walker, barroom brawler, bourbon drinker, and guest on nearly every television talk show on the air: from Mike Wallace’s ''Night Beat'' to David Susskind’s ''Omnibus'' to the talk shows of Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, Dick Cavett, Bob Cromie, Milt Rosenburg, Oprah, the ''60 Minutes'' Wallace, David Frost, and Charlie Rose. And, of late, O’Reilly. And thirty others. For a period in the fifties and sixties, Mailer was part owner of the ''Village Voice'', which he named and co-founded in 1955. Notably uxorious, he has wed six times, divorced five, and for over a quarter of century has been happily married to his sixth wife, [[Norris Church Mailer]]. | in fourth in a field of five.</ref> political gadfly, public intellectual, sexual warrior, street debater and White Negro. At various times, he has also been a tightrope walker, barroom brawler, bourbon drinker, and guest on nearly every television talk show on the air: from Mike Wallace’s ''Night Beat'' to David Susskind’s ''Omnibus'' to the talk shows of Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, Dick Cavett, Bob Cromie, Milt Rosenburg, Oprah, the ''60 Minutes'' Wallace, David Frost, and Charlie Rose. And, of late, O’Reilly. And thirty others. For a period in the fifties and sixties, Mailer was part owner of the ''Village Voice'', which he named and co-founded in {{date|1955}}. Notably uxorious, he has wed six times, divorced five, and for over a quarter of century has been happily married to his sixth wife, [[Norris Church Mailer]]. | ||
Among his other occupations, in no particular order, are: infantryman (his only full-time salaried job), existential philosopher, unpaid presidential adviser, amateur theologian, boxing consultant to Russell Crowe,<ref>For the film ''Cinderella Man'', produced by Ron Howard (2005).</ref> screenplay writer for Sergio Leone<ref>In 1976 Mailer wrote a script for Leone based on Harry Grey’s 1953 novel, ''The Hoods''. It | Among his other occupations, in no particular order, are: infantryman (his only full-time salaried job), existential philosopher, unpaid presidential adviser, amateur theologian, boxing consultant to Russell Crowe,<ref>For the film ''Cinderella Man'', produced by Ron Howard (2005).</ref> screenplay writer for Sergio Leone<ref>In 1976 Mailer wrote a script for Leone based on Harry Grey’s 1953 novel, ''The Hoods''. It | ||
was never produced.</ref> and Jean-Luc Godard,<ref>Mailer wrote a script for Godard based on ''King Lear''. He did not use the script, but Mailer | was never produced.</ref> and Jean-Luc Godard,<ref>Mailer wrote a script for Godard based on ''King Lear''. He did not use the script, but Mailer and his daughter Kate have cameos in the film that was made, ''King Lear'' (1987).</ref> Jeremiah, journalist (old and new), poet, playwright, lecturer, interviewer and interviewee (a thousand times), essayist, biographer, sports reporter, and connoisseur of literary forms, some of which he invented, and from 1984 to 1986, president of the American chapter of P.E.N. He has been a regular contributor to the ''Voice'', ''Dissent'', ''Esquire'',<ref>Mailer’s writing has appeared over 40 times in ''Esquire'' from 1953 to the present.</ref> ''Partisan Review'', ''Paris Review'', ''Playboy'', ''Harper’s'', ''Life'', ''The NYRB'', ''The New Yorker'', ''Vanity Fair'', and ''Parade'' (and has written for over 100 periodicals, all told). At different moments in his life he has done impersonations of Brendan Behan, Marlon Brando, Broderick Crawford, Lord Beaverbrook, Truman Capote, Ernest Hemingway, LBJ, and Tony Soprano. Over the decades he has transmogrified from collegiate atheist, to foxhole agnostic to Marxian anarchist to existential hipster to left conservative to Gnostic panjandrum. He has nine children and ten grandchildren, but he is also the spiritual father to a generation, perhaps two, and is still our hero, our man out on a limb talking a blue streak, telling off presidents, challenging experts, fulminating against technology, worrying about our fragile democracy and, at the age of 83, still taking on all comers, as attested to by the title of the wonderful exhibition here in the HRC. | ||
and his daughter Kate have cameos in the film that was made, ''King Lear'' (1987).</ref> Jeremiah, journalist (old and new), poet, playwright, lecturer, interviewer and interviewee (a thousand times), essayist, biographer, sports reporter, and connoisseur of literary forms, some of which he invented, and from 1984 to 1986, president of the American chapter of P.E.N. He has been a regular contributor to the ''Voice'', ''Dissent'', ''Esquire'',<ref>Mailer’s writing has appeared over 40 times in ''Esquire'' from 1953 to the present.</ref> ''Partisan Review'', ''Paris Review'', ''Playboy'', ''Harper’s'', ''Life'', ''The NYRB'', ''The New Yorker'', ''Vanity Fair'', and ''Parade'' (and has written for over 100 periodicals, all told). At different moments in his life he has done impersonations of Brendan Behan, Marlon Brando, Broderick Crawford, Lord Beaverbrook, Truman Capote, Ernest Hemingway, LBJ, and Tony Soprano. Over the decades he has transmogrified from collegiate atheist, to foxhole agnostic to Marxian anarchist to existential hipster to left conservative to Gnostic panjandrum. He has nine children and ten grandchildren, but he is also the spiritual father to a generation, perhaps two, and is still our hero, our man out on a limb talking a blue streak, telling off presidents, challenging experts, fulminating against technology, worrying about our fragile democracy and, at the age of 83, still taking on all comers, as attested to by the title of the wonderful exhibition here in the HRC. | |||
Perhaps no career in American literature has been so brilliant, varied, controversial, public, productive, lengthy and misunderstood. His imbroglios, generosities, litigations, and loyalties are numerous, notorious, and complex. Few American writers have had their careers on the minds of contemporary critics and on the anvil of public inspection for such a lengthy, unbroken span of time. No writer (save Edgar Allan Poe) has been so often or simultaneously celebrated and reviled. Can we be surprised that Norman Mailer told the ''New York Times'' that his favorite word is “improvisational”?<ref>Quoted in {{cite news |last=Baron |first=James |date=February 13, 1994 |title=Who Are You? |url= |work=New York Times |location=§9, 1, 7 |access-date= }}</ref> Or that his favorite card game is Texas Hold ’Em? | Perhaps no career in American literature has been so brilliant, varied, controversial, public, productive, lengthy and misunderstood. His imbroglios, generosities, litigations, and loyalties are numerous, notorious, and complex. Few American writers have had their careers on the minds of contemporary critics and on the anvil of public inspection for such a lengthy, unbroken span of time. No writer (save Edgar Allan Poe) has been so often or simultaneously celebrated and reviled. Can we be surprised that Norman Mailer told the ''New York Times'' that his favorite word is “improvisational”?<ref>Quoted in {{cite news |last=Baron |first=James |date=February 13, 1994 |title=Who Are You? |url= |work=New York Times |location=§9, 1, 7 |access-date= }}</ref> Or that his favorite card game is Texas Hold ’Em? | ||
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Two of Mailer’s nonfiction narratives, ''[[Of a Fire on the Moon]]'' (1970) and ''[[The Executioner's Song|The Executioner’s Song]]'' (1979), required an extraordinary amount of research and interviewing. For ''The Executioner’s Song'' Mailer and Lawrence Schiller conducted hundreds of interviews with individuals associated with Gary Gilmore; the tapes of many of those interviews are in the Mailer Papers and comprise a brilliant example of extensive and innovative interviewing. Historical researchers and journalists could learn much from a careful study of them. If I remember correctly, a half-dozen archival boxes of material associated with the moon shot book, and 23 with ''The Executioner’s Song'', were among the papers shipped here last year. Both books were nominated for the National Book Award, and ''The Executioner’s Song'' won a Pulitzer in 1980. Besides the obvious interest they will hold for interviewers of the future, and for students of the nonfiction novel, the audiotapes, research notes, court documents, and psychologists’ reports should intrigue those interested in the space program, capital punishment, and our contradictory legal system. | Two of Mailer’s nonfiction narratives, ''[[Of a Fire on the Moon]]'' (1970) and ''[[The Executioner's Song|The Executioner’s Song]]'' (1979), required an extraordinary amount of research and interviewing. For ''The Executioner’s Song'' Mailer and Lawrence Schiller conducted hundreds of interviews with individuals associated with Gary Gilmore; the tapes of many of those interviews are in the Mailer Papers and comprise a brilliant example of extensive and innovative interviewing. Historical researchers and journalists could learn much from a careful study of them. If I remember correctly, a half-dozen archival boxes of material associated with the moon shot book, and 23 with ''The Executioner’s Song'', were among the papers shipped here last year. Both books were nominated for the National Book Award, and ''The Executioner’s Song'' won a Pulitzer in 1980. Besides the obvious interest they will hold for interviewers of the future, and for students of the nonfiction novel, the audiotapes, research notes, court documents, and psychologists’ reports should intrigue those interested in the space program, capital punishment, and our contradictory legal system. | ||
Several of Mailer’s books, fiction and nonfiction, deal with the Kennedy assassination and his presidency, the cold war, and the Vietnam War. I refer to ''[[The Presidential Papers]]'' (1963), ''[[An American Dream]]'' (1965), ''[[Cannibals and Christians]]'' (1966), ''[[Why Are We in Vietnam?]]'' (1967), ''[[The Armies of the Night]]'' (1968), ''[[Miami and the Siege of Chicago]]'' (1968), ''[[Harlot's Ghost|Harlot’s Ghost]]'' (1991), ''[[Oswald’s Tale]]'' (1995), as well as his unpublished screenplay, “Havana,” and his work with Schiller on the story of the FBI spy, Robert Hanssen, which resulted in both a TV docudrama and a book.<ref>''Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story'', produced by Lawrence Schiller, appeared in two parts on CBS, November 10 and 27, 2002; the print version, ''Into the Mirror: The Life of Robert Hanssen'', published by HarperCollins, appeared in April 2002.</ref> No event in American history has reverberated as long and hard for Mailer as Kennedy’s assassination.<ref>See J. Michael and Donna Pedro Lennon’s ''Norman Mailer: Works and Days (Shavertown, PA: Sligo Press, 2000), where Kennedy is cited in 35 entries, more than any other person.</ref> Its powerful influence on his imagination is well documented in the Archive. Future cultural historians of the 1960s, Vietnam, and the cold war may well come to Austin to examine Mailer’s decades-long engagement with them so as to better understand their enduring influence on the nation. | Several of Mailer’s books, fiction and nonfiction, deal with the Kennedy assassination and his presidency, the cold war, and the Vietnam War. I refer to ''[[The Presidential Papers]]'' (1963), ''[[An American Dream]]'' (1965), ''[[Cannibals and Christians]]'' (1966), ''[[Why Are We in Vietnam?]]'' (1967), ''[[The Armies of the Night]]'' (1968), ''[[Miami and the Siege of Chicago]]'' (1968), ''[[Harlot's Ghost|Harlot’s Ghost]]'' (1991), ''[[Oswald’s Tale]]'' (1995), as well as his unpublished screenplay, “Havana,” and his work with Schiller on the story of the FBI spy, Robert Hanssen, which resulted in both a TV docudrama and a book.<ref>''Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story'', produced by Lawrence Schiller, appeared in two parts on CBS, November 10 and 27, 2002; the print version, ''Into the Mirror: The Life of Robert Hanssen'', published by HarperCollins, appeared in April 2002.</ref> No event in American history has reverberated as long and hard for Mailer as Kennedy’s assassination.<ref>See J. Michael and Donna Pedro Lennon’s ''Norman Mailer: Works and Days'' (Shavertown, PA: Sligo Press, 2000), where Kennedy is cited in 35 entries, more than any other person.</ref> Its powerful influence on his imagination is well documented in the Archive. Future cultural historians of the 1960s, Vietnam, and the cold war may well come to Austin to examine Mailer’s decades-long engagement with them so as to better understand their enduring influence on the nation. | ||
The Archive, as I have said, is massive, the largest single author holding in the HRC, and therefore difficult to characterize with precision. One way to get a quick sense of its diversity is to name some documents that will, I believe, attract very different kinds of researchers. Here are a few items: | The Archive, as I have said, is massive, the largest single author holding in the HRC, and therefore difficult to characterize with precision. One way to get a quick sense of its diversity is to name some documents that will, I believe, attract very different kinds of researchers. Here are a few items: | ||
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When both the letters and manuscripts have been chronologically ordered and identified by Steve and his colleagues, researchers will be able to move between and among them to cross check and enrich their understanding. Starting from the germ of a novel idea in a notebook or letter, one will be able to move through Mailer’s wide-ranging research, false starts (those for ''Ancient Evenings'' [1983] and ''The Executioner’s Song'' are quite instructive), to hand-written drafts (Mailer typed his first two novels, but has written the rest by hand, usually in pencil), revised typescripts, marked-up galleys and page proof to the final published copy. In many instances, Mailer published excerpts from forthcoming books in periodicals, and in one case, ''An American Dream'', published the entire novel as a serial in ''Esquire'' prior to book publication.<ref>It was serialized from January through August 1965.</ref> Most of these periodicals are in the HRC, and often differ in interesting ways from the final product. Mailer recast some of his books as plays or films, which were also followed by a wave of interviews, reviews and critical estimates. For example, his 1973 biography of Marilyn Monroe was followed in 1980 by a fictional account of a short period in her life, published as ''Of Women and Their Elegance'', which in turn was mined for an unpublished play titled ''Strawhead'', which was staged in 1986 at the Actors Studio in New York with Mailer’s daughter Kate as Marilyn. All this material is in the Mailer Papers. The HRC has first editions of all Mailer’s books, and many foreign editions, as well as fat files of reviews from U.S. and foreign periodicals, and dozens of volumes of critical estimates of his work. Thus, the flow and fruits of Mailer’s creative process over 60-plus years will soon be available for examination by scholars working in what can accurately be called the comprehensive archive that constitutes The Mailer Papers of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas at Austin. Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Mailer, his original archivist, the late Dr. Robert F. Lucid, my co-archivist Donna Pedro Lennon, and Dr. Thomas Staley and his staff for making this Archive available — in a year’s time — to the world. | When both the letters and manuscripts have been chronologically ordered and identified by Steve and his colleagues, researchers will be able to move between and among them to cross check and enrich their understanding. Starting from the germ of a novel idea in a notebook or letter, one will be able to move through Mailer’s wide-ranging research, false starts (those for ''Ancient Evenings'' [1983] and ''The Executioner’s Song'' are quite instructive), to hand-written drafts (Mailer typed his first two novels, but has written the rest by hand, usually in pencil), revised typescripts, marked-up galleys and page proof to the final published copy. In many instances, Mailer published excerpts from forthcoming books in periodicals, and in one case, ''An American Dream'', published the entire novel as a serial in ''Esquire'' prior to book publication.<ref>It was serialized from January through August 1965.</ref> Most of these periodicals are in the HRC, and often differ in interesting ways from the final product. Mailer recast some of his books as plays or films, which were also followed by a wave of interviews, reviews and critical estimates. For example, his 1973 biography of Marilyn Monroe was followed in 1980 by a fictional account of a short period in her life, published as ''Of Women and Their Elegance'', which in turn was mined for an unpublished play titled ''Strawhead'', which was staged in 1986 at the Actors Studio in New York with Mailer’s daughter Kate as Marilyn. All this material is in the Mailer Papers. The HRC has first editions of all Mailer’s books, and many foreign editions, as well as fat files of reviews from U.S. and foreign periodicals, and dozens of volumes of critical estimates of his work. Thus, the flow and fruits of Mailer’s creative process over 60-plus years will soon be available for examination by scholars working in what can accurately be called the comprehensive archive that constitutes The Mailer Papers of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas at Austin. Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Mailer, his original archivist, the late Dr. Robert F. Lucid, my co-archivist Donna Pedro Lennon, and Dr. Thomas Staley and his staff for making this Archive available — in a year’s time — to the world. | ||
{{Notes|width=30em}} | |||
{{Review|state=expanded}} | {{Review|state=expanded}} | ||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gallery Talk: The Mailer Archive}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:Gallery Talk: The Mailer Archive}} | ||
[[Category:Articles (MR)]] | [[Category:Articles (MR)]] | ||