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The Mailer Review/Volume 1, 2007/Gallery Talk: The Mailer Archive: Difference between revisions
The Mailer Review/Volume 1, 2007/Gallery Talk: The Mailer Archive (view source)
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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, November 10, 2006.|url=https://prmlr.us/mr07lenn}} | {{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, November 10, 2006.|url=https://prmlr.us/mr07lenn}} | ||
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 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 | ||
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 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]]. | ||
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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. | ||
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{{Review|state=expanded}} | {{Review|state=expanded}} | ||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gallery Talk: The Mailer Archive}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:Gallery Talk: The Mailer Archive}} | ||
[[Category:Articles (MR)]] | [[Category:Articles (MR)]] | ||