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In the last ten years, there have been four book-length scholarly studies of Mailer’s work, none of them from major presses,{{efn|Harold Bloom’s ''Modern Critical Views'' volume does not really contribute much to post-{{date|1998}} scholarship, even though it was published in {{date|2003}}. It includes my chapter on Mailer “The Myth of the American Adam in Late Mailer” from ''Political Fiction and the American Self'' ({{date|1998}}), which argues that supposedly conservative and often ahistorical political mythologies can and are deployed, by Mailer, in politically progressive ways. The introduction does not seem to have undergone a genuine introduction since the first edition of the volume, and so Harold Boom declares that American literature in {{date|2003}} is in “the Age of Pynchon”{{sfn|Bloom|2003|p=6}} and that it has been twenty-five years since the publication of ''Advertisements for Myself'' ({{date|1959}}).}} and an annotated bibliography. There have also been three collections of essays about his work, if we count the special issue of ''Journal of Modern Literature'' ({{date|2006}}) that the ''JML'' editors downgraded to a “cluster of essays” and the first two issues of ''The Mailer Review'' ({{date|2007}} and {{date|2008}}), published by The Norman Mailer Society and co-sponsored with the University of South Florida.{{efn|The introduction to the ''Journal of Modern Literature'' cluster is more or less an act of editorial disassociation. Consider this sentence from Robert Caserio’s “Editor’s Introduction”: “To scholars whose liberating address to representations of women was succeeded by consciousness of the artificiality of gender, masculine and feminine, Mailer’s unblinking investment in masculinity in ''Ancient Evenings'' or ''Tough Guys Don’t Dance'' has looked late indeed—positively out of date.”{{sfn|Caserio|2006|p=v}} Anyone who reads the essays on ''Ancient Evenings'' and ''Tough Guys'' will see that “unblinking investment in masculinity” is an inadequate characterization.}} Other new resources include the Mailer papers at the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin, which in {{date|2005}} acquired a mind-bogglingly comprehensive archive of Mailer’s work. There is also the website of The Norman Mailer Society. Harvard University also acquired some papers of limited value when Carole Mallory sold her papers to America’s most prestigious university. | In the last ten years, there have been four book-length scholarly studies of Mailer’s work, none of them from major presses,{{efn|Harold Bloom’s ''Modern Critical Views'' volume does not really contribute much to post-{{date|1998}} scholarship, even though it was published in {{date|2003}}. It includes my chapter on Mailer “The Myth of the American Adam in Late Mailer” from ''Political Fiction and the American Self'' ({{date|1998}}), which argues that supposedly conservative and often ahistorical political mythologies can and are deployed, by Mailer, in politically progressive ways. The introduction does not seem to have undergone a genuine introduction since the first edition of the volume, and so Harold Boom declares that American literature in {{date|2003}} is in “the Age of Pynchon”{{sfn|Bloom|2003|p=6}} and that it has been twenty-five years since the publication of ''Advertisements for Myself'' ({{date|1959}}).}} and an annotated bibliography. There have also been three collections of essays about his work, if we count the special issue of ''Journal of Modern Literature'' ({{date|2006}}) that the ''JML'' editors downgraded to a “cluster of essays” and the first two issues of ''The Mailer Review'' ({{date|2007}} and {{date|2008}}), published by The Norman Mailer Society and co-sponsored with the University of South Florida.{{efn|The introduction to the ''Journal of Modern Literature'' cluster is more or less an act of editorial disassociation. Consider this sentence from Robert Caserio’s “Editor’s Introduction”: “To scholars whose liberating address to representations of women was succeeded by consciousness of the artificiality of gender, masculine and feminine, Mailer’s unblinking investment in masculinity in ''Ancient Evenings'' or ''Tough Guys Don’t Dance'' has looked late indeed—positively out of date.”{{sfn|Caserio|2006|p=v}} Anyone who reads the essays on ''Ancient Evenings'' and ''Tough Guys'' will see that “unblinking investment in masculinity” is an inadequate characterization.}} Other new resources include the Mailer papers at the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin, which in {{date|2005}} acquired a mind-bogglingly comprehensive archive of Mailer’s work. There is also the website of The Norman Mailer Society. Harvard University also acquired some papers of limited value when Carole Mallory sold her papers to America’s most prestigious university. | ||
First book-length study: Mailer continues to receive more attention as a symptom rather than as a shaper of culture, and Mary V. Dearborn’s ''Mailer: a Biography'' is an excellent window into literary politics in postwar America. In presenting Mailer as an artist who has lost as much as he has gained by bargaining with fame, Dearborn raises important issues about the effects of celebrity culture on literature. Her account begins with Mailer’s fiftieth birthday party in 1973, in which he was to announce his plan for a “Fifth | First book-length study: Mailer continues to receive more attention as a symptom rather than as a shaper of culture, and Mary V. Dearborn’s ''Mailer: a Biography'' is an excellent window into literary politics in postwar America. In presenting Mailer as an artist who has lost as much as he has gained by bargaining with fame, Dearborn raises important issues about the effects of celebrity culture on literature. Her account begins with Mailer’s fiftieth birthday party in {{date|1973}}, in which he was to announce his plan for a “Fifth Estate,” a citizen watchdog group to monitor the activities of the FBI and the CIA. Mailer was intoxicated as he stepped up to the microphone and bungled the event. Dearborn examines Mailer’s every failure in excruciating detail and hypothesizes a Freudian repetition-compulsion at one point, but psychological explanation of Mailer’s behavior is in no way a priority in this text. Rather, Dearborn marshals the author’s crimes and misdemeanors to argue that Mailer has been cut off from the world in important ways by the celebrity that has been such an important part of his literary arsenal: “[H]e became famous seemingly overnight, and his stature ensured that he was shielded from reality by a tight band of supporters and family. When he tragically stumbled, stabbing Adele in {{date|1960}}, his inner circle made sure that he would pay no price for the deed.”{{sfn|Dearborn|1999|p=424}} Previous biographers have covered what has been euphemistically called “the Trouble,” but none have been as astute as Dearborn in assessing the more painful consequences of America’s love affair with literary rebellion. | ||
Estate,” a citizen watchdog group to monitor the activities of the FBI and the CIA. Mailer was intoxicated as he stepped up to the microphone and bungled the event. Dearborn examines Mailer’s every failure in excruciating detail and hypothesizes a Freudian repetition-compulsion at one point, but psychological explanation of Mailer’s behavior is in no way a priority in this text. Rather, Dearborn marshals the author’s crimes and misdemeanors to argue that Mailer has been cut off from the world in important ways by the celebrity that has been such an important part of his literary arsenal: “[H]e became famous seemingly overnight, and his stature ensured that he was shielded from reality by a tight band of supporters and family. When he tragically stumbled, stabbing Adele in 1960, his inner circle made sure that he would pay no price for the | |||
What, then, is Mailer’s achievement? Dearborn mercilessly assesses Mailer’s failures but finally concludes that he has “turned his celebrity to good | What, then, is Mailer’s achievement? Dearborn mercilessly assesses Mailer’s failures but finally concludes that he has “turned his celebrity to good account.”{{sfn|Dearborn|1999|p=425}} For Dearborn “Mailer . . . discovered that celebrity could open up doors to a new kind of cultural expression in which the artist’s personal and creative lives inform each other in beneficial ways.”{{sfn|Dearborn|1999|p=425}} While insisting that his experiments with celebrity have often been disastrous failures, Dearborn finally lauds Mailer for having opened up a cultural space that was not available previously, one which has been as important to ideological opponents as it was to himself: “[C]ould Germaine Greer not have known that without Norman Mailer she would perhaps not have been able to cut the figure she did, flamboyant in feathers, and as the author of ''The Female Eunuch'', a feminist text that brilliantly mixed the personal and the political?”{{sfn|Dearborn|1999|p=425}} This argument is often put forward by Mailer defenders, but it is more credible when it appears in Dearborn’s frequently severe assessment. | ||
Though Dearborn claims that the life and the work are equally important in Mailer’s case, her non-hagiographic view of the life is worth much more than her approach to the writing. ''The Armies of the Night'' (1968) is for Dearborn Mailer’s best work, and it is an unsurprising opinion. She declares ''Of a Fire on the Moon'' (1971) “one of the most disastrous projects of his writing life,” which is a strange assessment when one considers the thoughtful responses to that work in studies by Kernan, Landow, and Tabbi. Dearborn’s discussions of the work occasionally strike one as breezy, and they seem to rely a little too much on the scuttlebutt of reviewers. For example, she claims that ''Oswald’s Tale'' (1995) received almost uniformly bad reviews, but actually this book received positive reviews in a number of publications. More | Though Dearborn claims that the life and the work are equally important in Mailer’s case, her non-hagiographic view of the life is worth much more than her approach to the writing. ''The Armies of the Night'' ({{date|1968}}) is for Dearborn Mailer’s best work, and it is an unsurprising opinion. She declares ''Of a Fire on the Moon'' ({{date|1971}}) “one of the most disastrous projects of his writing life,” which is a strange assessment when one considers the thoughtful responses to that work in studies by Kernan, Landow, and Tabbi. Dearborn’s discussions of the work occasionally strike one as breezy, and they seem to rely a little too much on the scuttlebutt of reviewers. For example, she claims that ''Oswald’s Tale'' ({{date|1995}}) received almost uniformly bad reviews, but actually this book received positive reviews in a number of publications. More ambitious works such as ''Ancient Evenings'' ({{date|1983}}) receive a competent overview, but the study offers no real surprises. Each generation, at any rate, must write its own biography of a phenomenon such as Mailer, and Dearborn’s is the most complete portrait from this period, {{date|1998}}—{{date|2008}}. Since Robert Lucid’s death, J. Michael Lennon has taken over the job of writing an authorized biography. | ||
ambitious works such as ''Ancient Evenings'' (1983) receive a competent overview, but the study offers no real surprises. Each generation, at any rate, must write its own biography of a phenomenon such as Mailer, and Dearborn’s is the most complete portrait from this period, | |||
Second book-length study: Barry H. Leeds, author of ''The Structured Vision of Norman Mailer'' (1969), has collected essays written about Mailer into a strongly affirmative reading of Mailer’s career, and ''The Enduring Vision of Norman Mailer'' is an extremely personal overview that brings together in one book the major concerns of Mailer readers. The book, we might say, is a series of conversations: Leeds has chapters on Mailer’s dialogue with Marilyn, Mailer’s political debates with American culture, and on Mailer’s long-term relationship with the boxing metaphor. There is also a chapter on the relationship between ''Tough Guys Don’t Dance'' and ''An American Dream'', one on ''Tough Guys'' in relation to Hollywood, and a reading of | Second book-length study: Barry H. Leeds, author of ''The Structured Vision of Norman Mailer'' ({{date|1969}}), has collected essays written about Mailer into a strongly affirmative reading of Mailer’s career, and ''The Enduring Vision of Norman Mailer'' is an extremely personal overview that brings together in one book the major concerns of Mailer readers. The book, we might say, is a series of conversations: Leeds has chapters on Mailer’s dialogue with Marilyn, Mailer’s political debates with American culture, and on Mailer’s long-term relationship with the boxing metaphor. There is also a chapter on the relationship between ''Tough Guys Don’t Dance'' and ''An American Dream'', one on ''Tough Guys'' in relation to Hollywood, and a reading of | ||
''Harlot’s Ghost''. Leeds leads a discussion of Mailer criticism, and finally he offers a personal testimony about his relationship with Mailer over four decades. Leeds insightfully discusses sexuality as an aspect of celebrity in his ''Marilyn'' chapter, and his focus on the notion of the psychic outlaw is, as we shall see, an enduring theme of Mailer criticism of the last decade: “Boxing has provided a significant moral paradigm throughout most of Mailer’s life and | ''Harlot’s Ghost''. Leeds leads a discussion of Mailer criticism, and finally he offers a personal testimony about his relationship with Mailer over four decades. Leeds insightfully discusses sexuality as an aspect of celebrity in his ''Marilyn'' chapter, and his focus on the notion of the psychic outlaw is, as we shall see, an enduring theme of Mailer criticism of the last decade: “Boxing has provided a significant moral paradigm throughout most of Mailer’s life and work.”{{sfn|Leeds|2002|p=57}} Although this chapter really is exclusively about boxing, it announces another of our major themes in so far as Mailer, more than any other post-war American writer, personifies the agonistic conception of the writer theorized by Harold Bloom’s ''The Anxiety of Influence'' and related works. Leed’s fourth chapter,“The Mystery Novels: ''Tough Guys Don’t Dance: An American Dream'' Revisited” does something almost no one else does—it makes comparisons between Mailer at the height of his reputation and Mailer in the last few decades, when many critics have decided that he is past his sell-by date. I am perhaps alone in the view that Mailer, in the decades since ''The Executioner’s Song'', is at the height of his powers, an idea I had hoped to demonstrate by collecting essays on this period of Mailer’s work in the Fall {{date|2006}} issue of ''Journal of Modern Literature''. Leeds’ final chapters, “Mailer and Me” and “Into the Millennium” gather together various observations on the Picasso book, Oswald’s tale, and ''The Gospel According to the Son'', noting the obvious point that it takes chutzpah{{sfn|Leeds|2002|p=171}} to rewrite the Gospel as a first-person narrative, but going on to say as well that the book has parallels to Mailer’s meticulous research into other cultures (''The Fight'') and historic civilizations (''Ancient Evenings''). Critics and reviewers have utterly failed to adequately appreciate Mailer’s historical research, preferring instead the fantasy that Mailer produced endless books that no editor could improve and which were entirely innocent of knowledge of the actual world. This is a slander that Mailer criticism should set itself the task of correcting. | ||
The third and fourth book-length studies were not published in the United States. Hongli Gu’s ''A New Historicist and Cultural Materialistic Study of Norman Mailer’s'' Work was published in China by Xiamen University Press. This book has many errors but it also has much to offer. Gu argues, along with New Historicists and Cultural Studies theorists of various stripes, that there is “a dialogical relationship between history and | The third and fourth book-length studies were not published in the United States. Hongli Gu’s ''A New Historicist and Cultural Materialistic Study of Norman Mailer’s'' Work was published in China by Xiamen University Press. This book has many errors but it also has much to offer. Gu argues, along with New Historicists and Cultural Studies theorists of various stripes, that there is “a dialogical relationship between history and literature.”{{sfn|Gu|2004|p=36}} In assuming that Mailer is “the spokesman for American culture for about four decades,”{{sfn|Gu|2004|p=38}} Gu’s willingness to articulate connections between predominant trends between literary criticism and theory and Mailer’s own themes are worthy of more attention. | ||
Markku Lehtimäki’s ''The Poetics of Norman Mailer’s Nonfiction: Self-Reflexivity, Literary Form, and The Rhetoric of Narrative'' is, like Gu’s study, a version of the author’s doctoral dissertation. Neither author agrees with the critical consensus holding that Mailer was finished sometime around 1970. The study traces connections between self-reflexivity and literary form in Mailer’s work, comparing Mailer’s narratological innovations with the highly-developed conceptual schemes of contemporary theory. | Markku Lehtimäki’s ''The Poetics of Norman Mailer’s Nonfiction: Self-Reflexivity, Literary Form, and The Rhetoric of Narrative'' is, like Gu’s study, a version of the author’s doctoral dissertation. Neither author agrees with the critical consensus holding that Mailer was finished sometime around {{date|1970}}. The study traces connections between self-reflexivity and literary form in Mailer’s work, comparing Mailer’s narratological innovations with the highly-developed conceptual schemes of contemporary theory. | ||
The title presents this study as a discussion of Mailer’s nonfiction, but Lehtimäki makes connections among all of Mailer’s works, and the delimitations of the title do an injustice to the thoroughness of the project. Whether or not the author meant it in this way, it would seem that the book has a strategy for recouping a center: the overstated claim. In arguing that “Norman Mailer’s work represents a third mode between the conventional categories of fiction and nonfiction,” Lehtimäki argues that “we need a systematic theory (poetics) for tracing the uncharted territory in the first | The title presents this study as a discussion of Mailer’s nonfiction, but Lehtimäki makes connections among all of Mailer’s works, and the delimitations of the title do an injustice to the thoroughness of the project. Whether or not the author meant it in this way, it would seem that the book has a strategy for recouping a center: the overstated claim. In arguing that “Norman Mailer’s work represents a third mode between the conventional categories of fiction and nonfiction,” Lehtimäki argues that “we need a systematic theory (poetics) for tracing the uncharted territory in the first place.”{{sfn|Lehtimäki|2005|p=1}} The problem here is that Lehtimäki, in a kind of scholarly ''tour de force'', expends a hundred pages reviewing claims about this “uncharted territory” (a phrase he borrows from Eric Heyne). The overstated claim is not a criminal offense, but it leaves one thinking that the author’s desire for completion in his representation of narratological discourse has displaced a more developed thesis about Mailer. The claim that Mailer’s fiction is a third way is strong enough, but it is not really exceptional. The claim that his “own thesis is the first book-length study specially devoted to the poetics and problems of Mailer’s nonfiction” is taken without quibble or qualification, but the follow-up claim that “the strict distinction between fictional and factual narratives does not characterize the complexity and self-reflexivity of Mailer’s use of the literary form”{{sfn|Lehtimäki|2005|p=23}} leaves one asking, Who ever thought it did? Barbara Lounsberry is faulted for “rather rigidly” separating works composed of “documentable subject matter chosen from the real world” from those that are “the writer’s inventions.”{{sfn|Lehtimäki|2005|p=5}} and Lehtimäki attempts to bring the languages of narratology and literary nonfiction to higher levels of precision, but it would enhance the focus and thus the ultimate force of the argument to allow more for the useful generalization. | ||
is strong enough, but it is not really exceptional. The claim that his “own thesis is the first book-length study specially devoted to the poetics and problems of Mailer’s nonfiction” is taken without quibble or qualification, but the follow-up claim that “the strict distinction between fictional and factual narratives does not characterize the complexity and self-reflexivity of Mailer’s use of the literary form” | |||
to allow more for the useful generalization. | |||
Those who are interested in Mailer’s life, work, and cultural milieu will also be interested in J. Michael and Donna Pedro Lennon’s ''Norman Mailer: Works and Days'', a thorough bio-bibliographical study that documents all Mailer publications, reviews, and major critical statements. The witty annotations make this volume an enjoyable read, and ''Works and Days'' also includes many unpublished photos and useful apparatuses such as the “ratings of Reviews” of Mailer’s twenty-seven key books. Lennon has assigned a numerical value to all reviews of the main Mailer books and has charted them from most to least successful. Where does ''Oswald’s Tale'' show up on this list? Just slightly above the center mark. Where is ''Of a Fire on the Moon'' within Mailer’s ''oeuvre''? It is the seventh book from the top, following ''The Executioner’s Song'' (1979). In a factoid world where many believe “there are no facts, only interpretations,” it is important to preserve the value of facts: ''Works and Days'' is the sort of tool that helps us keep a complex record straight. | Those who are interested in Mailer’s life, work, and cultural milieu will also be interested in J. Michael and Donna Pedro Lennon’s ''Norman Mailer: Works and Days'', a thorough bio-bibliographical study that documents all Mailer publications, reviews, and major critical statements. The witty annotations make this volume an enjoyable read, and ''Works and Days'' also includes many unpublished photos and useful apparatuses such as the “ratings of Reviews” of Mailer’s twenty-seven key books. Lennon has assigned a numerical value to all reviews of the main Mailer books and has charted them from most to least successful. Where does ''Oswald’s Tale'' show up on this list? Just slightly above the center mark. Where is ''Of a Fire on the Moon'' within Mailer’s ''oeuvre''? It is the seventh book from the top, following ''The Executioner’s Song'' ({{date|1979}}). In a factoid world where many believe “there are no facts, only interpretations,” it is important to preserve the value of facts: ''Works and Days'' is the sort of tool that helps us keep a complex record straight.{{efn|Lennon and Constance E. Holmes update the bibliography through {{date|2006}} in the {{date|2007}} issue of ''The Mailer Review''.}} | ||
The inaugural issue of The Mailer Review (Fall 2007), expertly edited by Phillip Sipiora, was a much-anticipated publication by members of The Norman Mailer Society. | The [[The Mailer Review/Volume 1, 2007|inaugural issue of ''The Mailer Review'']] (Fall {{date|2007}}), expertly edited by Phillip Sipiora, was a much-anticipated publication by members of The Norman Mailer Society.{{efn|The first issue was praised in the ''New York Times'' literary blog, “Papercuts” by Dwight {{harvtxt|Garner|2007}}: “For anyone who’s interested, a fascinating testament to Mailer’s headlong life has arrived on newsstands—the inaugural issue of ''The Mailer Review'', a product of the University of South Florida and the Norman Mailer Society. The journal’s editor, Phillip Sipiora, has deftly searched the Mailer archives . . . and rounded up a lot of first-rate material. There’s nary a dull page among its 265.”}} It is an eclectic collection: there is a piece by Barbara Mailer Wasserman, Norman’s sister, on the years they spent together before he became famous; an analysis of Mailer’s work in films by William Kennedy entitled “Norman Mailer as Occasional Commentator in a Self-Interview and Memoir”—an homage to Mailer’s own ludic approach to interviews. Jonathan Middlebrook anticipates the reconsideration to come in “Five Notes Toward a Reassessment of Norman Mailer,” and Alan Petigny’s “Norman Mailer, ‘The White Negro,’ and New Conceptions of the Self in Postwar America” argues for the centrality of Mailer’s polemical definition of the hipster for anyone who wishes to understand the shifts that characterize postwar American culture. | ||
he became famous; an analysis of Mailer’s work in films by William Kennedy entitled “Norman Mailer as Occasional Commentator in a Self-Interview and Memoir”—an homage to Mailer’s own ludic approach to | |||
interviews. Jonathan Middlebrook anticipates the reconsideration to come in “Five Notes Toward a Reassessment of Norman Mailer,” and Alan Petigny’s “Norman Mailer, ‘The White Negro,’ and New Conceptions of the Self in Postwar America” argues for the centrality of Mailer’s polemical definition of the hipster for anyone who wishes to understand the shifts that characterize postwar American culture. | |||
“Boston State Hospital: The Summer of 1942” is an excerpt from Robert F. Lucid’s unfinished authorized biography of Mailer, and it is accompanied by an excerpt from Mailer’s ''play'' “The Naked and the Dead,” written in 1942 after Mailer’s experience as an employee in the of Boston State Hospital. J. Michael Lennon presents a selection of Mailer’s letters entitled | “Boston State Hospital: The Summer of 1942” is an excerpt from Robert F. Lucid’s unfinished authorized biography of Mailer, and it is accompanied by an excerpt from Mailer’s ''play'' “The Naked and the Dead,” written in 1942 after Mailer’s experience as an employee in the of Boston State Hospital. J. Michael Lennon presents a selection of Mailer’s letters entitled {{" '}}A Series of Tragicomedies’: Mailer’s Letters on ''The Deer Park'', 1954—55,” which chronicle Mailer’s extraordinary effort to complete and publish his third novel. There is also Philip Bufithis’ reconnaissance, “''The Executioner’s Song'': a Life Beneath Our Conscience,” Jeffrey Severs’ interview with Mailer comrade-in-arms, entitled “The Untold Story Behind ''The Executioner’s Song'': A Conversation with Lawrence Schiller,” and Morris Dickstein’s typically clear and | ||
authoritative “How Mailer Became ‘Mailer’: The Writer as Private and Public Character.” | authoritative “How Mailer Became ‘Mailer’: The Writer as Private and Public Character.” | ||
A variety of interesting visuals (including pages of his notebooks, plot charts, royalty statements, etc.) from the Mailer Archive at the Harry Ransom Center, appear courtesy of Cathy Henderson, Richard W. Oram, Molly Schwartzburg, and Molly Hardy: “Mailer Takes on America: Images from the Ransom Center Archive” is a museum show that comes to you. Donald L. Kaufmann’s “''An American Dream'': The Singular Nightmare” is a reprint of an influential essay on Mailer’s most cohesive novel, and there are five preliminary considerations of Mailer’s last novel ''The Castle in the Forest'' by renowned Mailer readers Christopher Ricks, Robert J. Begiebing, Barbara Probst Solomon, and Phillip Sipiora. Finally, Constance E. Holmes and | A variety of interesting visuals (including pages of his notebooks, plot charts, royalty statements, etc.) from the Mailer Archive at the Harry Ransom Center, appear courtesy of Cathy Henderson, Richard W. Oram, Molly Schwartzburg, and Molly Hardy: “Mailer Takes on America: Images from the Ransom Center Archive” is a museum show that comes to you. Donald L. Kaufmann’s “''An American Dream'': The Singular Nightmare” is a reprint of an influential essay on Mailer’s most cohesive novel, and there are five preliminary considerations of Mailer’s last novel ''The Castle in the Forest'' by renowned Mailer readers Christopher Ricks, Robert J. Begiebing, Barbara Probst Solomon, and Phillip Sipiora. Finally, Constance E. Holmes and J. Michael Lennon update Lennon’s essential ''Works and Days'' with a “Supplemental Bibliography Through 2006.” | ||
J. Michael Lennon update Lennon’s essential Works and Days with a “Supplemental Bibliography Through 2006.” | |||
Mailer readers will find ''The Mailer Review'' at once | Mailer readers will find ''The Mailer Review'' at once indispensable and a whole lot of fun. Clearly it would not be possible to maintain this level of excellence, and of course Phillip Sipiora could not do this, so he exceeded it. The [[The Mailer Review/Volume 2, 2008|second volume of the ''Mailer Review'']] (Fall {{date|2008}}) was published after Mailer’s death on {{date|2007-11-10|DMY}}, and is a tribute to Mailer’s towering achievement with contributions from the heavyweights of American writing and expression. It is twice as long as the inaugural volume and contains an entire section of tributes read during his memorial at Carnegie Hall in {{date|April 2008}}. This eclectic group of guests, which included Don DeLillo, Sean Penn, all of Mailer’s nine children, Günter Grass, and Lonnie Ali (wife of Muhammad Ali), shared personal anecdotes and reminisces of their encounters with Mailer. More of such remembrances continue in the next section of the journal; there are written tributes by writers like Gay Talese, Richard Lee Fulgham and filmmaker Dick Fontaine. | ||
an entire section of tributes read during his memorial at Carnegie Hall in April 2008. This eclectic group of guests, which included Don DeLillo, Sean Penn, all of Mailer’s nine children, Günter Grass, and Lonnie Ali (wife of Muhammad Ali), shared personal anecdotes and reminisces of their encounters with Mailer. More of such remembrances continue in the next section of the journal; there are written tributes by writers like Gay Talese, Richard Lee Fulgham and filmmaker Dick Fontaine. | |||
Three works by Mailer are also included; a hitherto unpublished essay “What’s Wrong With America: Five Proposals,” the acceptance speech he gave at the National Book Foundation Award ceremony, and my | Three works by Mailer are also included; a hitherto unpublished essay “What’s Wrong With America: Five Proposals,” the acceptance speech he gave at the National Book Foundation Award ceremony, and my favorite—the lyrics to a blues song he wrote called “The Bodily Functions Blues,” which is everything you would expect from its title. | ||
In 2005, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin acquired the archive of Mailer’s papers for $2.5 million, making it the go-to place for Mailer scholars, students and the public to study his papers first-hand. This collection was opened to the public in January 2008. The more than 1,000 boxes of materials include handwritten manuscripts and typescripts of his books, their galley proofs, drafts of every single one of his literary projects (published and unpublished), personal | In {{date|2005}}, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin acquired the archive of Mailer’s papers for $2.5 million, making it the go-to place for Mailer scholars, students and the public to study his papers first-hand. This collection was opened to the public in {{date|January 2008}}. The more than 1,000 boxes of materials include handwritten manuscripts and typescripts of his books, their galley proofs, drafts of every single one of his literary projects (published and unpublished), personal | ||
papers including business and financial records, and audio and video tapes. | papers including business and financial records, and audio and video tapes. | ||
But it is Mailer’s nearly 45,000 letters with more than 3,500 correspondents, including friends and family, that should prove the most interesting primary material for researchers looking to find additional context to all his works as well as insight into the man himself. As Steve Mielke, lead archivist for the project, explains in Gillian Reagan’s article in the ''New York Observer'': | But it is Mailer’s nearly 45,000 letters with more than 3,500 correspondents, including friends and family, that should prove the most interesting primary material for researchers looking to find additional context to all his works as well as insight into the man himself. As Steve Mielke, lead archivist for the project, explains in Gillian Reagan’s article in the ''New York Observer'': | ||
{{quote|Correspondence within an archive often reveals unexpected insights that aren’t obvious in manuscripts or elsewhere. . . . From the 1940s to the 1980s, Mailer’s letters with Japanese literary translator Eiichi Yamanishi, for example, record a fascinating discussion between author and translator about the composition and meaning of Mailer’s works.}} | |||
{{quote|Correspondence within an archive often reveals unexpected insights that aren’t obvious in manuscripts or elsewhere .... From the 1940s to the 1980s, Mailer’s letters with Japanese literary translator Eiichi Yamanishi, for example, record a fascinating discussion between author and translator about the composition and meaning of Mailer’s works.}} | |||
Mailer corresponded with some of the most important American figures in his time, including Allen Ginsberg, Aldous Huxley, Truman Capote, Muhammad Ali, John Lennon, Don DeLillo, Joyce Carol Oates, Diana Trilling, James Jones and William Styron. | Mailer corresponded with some of the most important American figures in his time, including Allen Ginsberg, Aldous Huxley, Truman Capote, Muhammad Ali, John Lennon, Don DeLillo, Joyce Carol Oates, Diana Trilling, James Jones and William Styron. | ||
On November 9—11, 2006, the Center hosted its biennale Fleur Cowles Flair Symposium, ''The Sense of Our Time: Norman Mailer and America in Conflict''. The panelists included Norman Mailer himself, J. Michael Lennon, and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David Oshinsky. There was also an exhibition held in conjunction with the Symposium—“Norman Mailer Takes On America”—which was described by Lennon as “by far the most impressive exhibition of the life and work of Norman Mailer ever | On November 9—11, 2006, the Center hosted its biennale Fleur Cowles Flair Symposium, ''The Sense of Our Time: Norman Mailer and America in Conflict''. The panelists included Norman Mailer himself, J. Michael Lennon, and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David Oshinsky. There was also an exhibition held in conjunction with the Symposium—“Norman Mailer Takes On America”—which was described by Lennon as “by far the most impressive exhibition of the life and work of Norman Mailer ever mounted.” [https://web.archive.org/web/20080122022501/http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/ransomedition/2006/fall/norman_mailer.html Lennon gave an interview with the Center].{{efn|[As is the case with many URLs in print, the links included by the authors are dead as of the date of remediation, {{date|July 2021}}. Therefore, those that have been archived or just relocated are linked, but dead URLs have been removed. —Ed.]}} Also, an interview with Norman Mailer, his son John Buffalo Mailer and sister Barbara Mailer Wasserman was conducted by Ransom Center’s Curator of Academic Affairs, Robert Fulton, when the family came for the Symposium. The [https://www.hrc.utexas.edu/search/sound/recordings/?collNo=MS-02643 audio clips] from the interview and its transcript can be found at the Center. Among other questions, Fulton asked the following: | ||
{{quote|'''Robert Fulton:''' You as Norman Mailer have various | {{quote|'''Robert Fulton:''' You as Norman Mailer have various identities—you are Norman Mailer the writer, then when you speak about yourself as Norman or Mailer in your writings in sort of the third person, and then you’re Norman Mailer the reader. Which one of those is stronger for you? | ||
'''Norman Mailer:''' It almost depends on my mood. If I’m reading aloud, I’ll be the person I’m pretending to be, at that point I’ll be Norman Mailer the reader. I do think we have a certain separation from ourselves. In other words, when I’m talking about myself at the age of 28, and I’m saying “Norman”—he exists in my mind almost like a relative. In other words I don’t feel the individual umbilical cord stretching right out to him so I can yank on him and bring him in. He’s there; he is what he was and so on. And I think that’s true of all of us. We bear an odd relation to our own past that is beyond my powers to explore, but they may get into that sort of thing.}} | '''Norman Mailer:''' It almost depends on my mood. If I’m reading aloud, I’ll be the person I’m pretending to be, at that point I’ll be Norman Mailer the reader. I do think we have a certain separation from ourselves. In other words, when I’m talking about myself at the age of 28, and I’m saying “Norman”—he exists in my mind almost like a relative. In other words I don’t feel the individual umbilical cord stretching right out to him so I can yank on him and bring him in. He’s there; he is what he was and so on. And I think that’s true of all of us. We bear an odd relation to our own past that is beyond my powers to explore, but they may get into that sort of thing.}} | ||
The umbilical cord stretching endlessly between imagination and | The umbilical cord stretching endlessly between imagination and reality—Mailer’s musings, his more polished prose, and the anecdotes we now think of as “his life” flow one into the other, defeating our attempts at anything like narratological precision. | ||
The Harry Ransom Center’s website provides an inventory page for the [ | The Harry Ransom Center’s website provides an inventory page for the [https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00480 Mailer archive], which includes detailed descriptions of its scope and contents, the six series the collection is divided into, the folder list and indexes of his correspondents and works. A [https://web.archive.org/web/20080222165042/http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/press/releases/2007/mailer/ press release page] also serves as a navigation page to various Mailer resources available on the website—interviews, photos, and information about Mailer-related materials found in ''other'' collections at the Center. A searchable “Finding Aid” provides more information about the collection under the search term “Norman Mailer,” although many of the search results are repeated and hence difficult to wade through. However some of this information can only be found via the Finding Aid, so until the search engine becomes more intelligent, the dedicated researcher will have to go through every link. These online search aids should prove most valuable to those intending to visit the Harry Ransom Center, as one can locate a thorough picture of what is available before going there. | ||
Another online resource is the home page of The Norman Mailer Society. | Another online resource is the home page of The Norman Mailer Society.{{efn|The NMS Web Site has been developed and is maintained by Gerald R. Lucas. Direct content inquiries, additions, and errors to: {{nospam|editor|projectmailer.net}}.}} It is essentially presented as a blog, complete with a news feed one can subscribe to for news and announcements—a boon for those who want to keep abreast of the latest Mailer-related news, as the site is frequently updated. Information about the Society’s yearly conference is available, and registration payment can be made directly from the site using PayPal. The Society also puts out newsletters that can be downloaded from their site. The section of the website called “Books” provides an Amazon-powered search engine for books and convenient links to first-editions of Mailer books available for purchase at the Amazon website. There is also a recommended list of key texts for Mailer studies. Another section is dedicated to information about ''The Mailer Review'', including excerpts from the second volume. | ||
keep abreast of the latest Mailer-related news, as the site is frequently updated. Information about the Society’s yearly conference is available, and registration payment can be made directly from the site using PayPal. The Society also puts out newsletters that can be downloaded from their site. The section of the website called “Books” provides an Amazon-powered search engine for books and convenient links to first-editions of Mailer books available for purchase at the Amazon website. There is also a recommended list | |||
of key texts for Mailer studies. Another section is dedicated to information about ''The Mailer Review'', including excerpts from the second volume. | |||
As the website is run on a blogging platform, each “post” on the website is open to comments from the public. Alas, hardly any comments can be found—not even a Bronx cheer in response to the announcement that Mailer had been inducted into the Brooklyn Hall of Fame. The posting of comments creates a sense of community with the possibility for back-and-forth conversations, and hopefully more Mailer enthusiasts will participate as the Society matures. Provocations are proposed. That said, the website is the first place to go for Mailer news. Headlines at this moment include the national high school and college-level writing contests (co-sponsored by The Mailer | As the website is run on a blogging platform, each “post” on the website is open to comments from the public. Alas, hardly any comments can be found—not even a Bronx cheer in response to the announcement that Mailer had been inducted into the Brooklyn Hall of Fame. The posting of comments creates a sense of community with the possibility for back-and-forth conversations, and hopefully more Mailer enthusiasts will participate as the Society matures. Provocations are proposed. That said, the website is the first place to go for Mailer news. Headlines at this moment include the national high school and college-level writing contests (co-sponsored by The Mailer Estate and the National Council of Teachers of English), and the launching of the [https://nmcenter.org/ Mailer Writer’s Colony]. | ||
Estate and the National Council of Teachers of English), and the launching of the | |||
In April 2008, Harvard University purchased seven boxes of letters, books and papers from Mailer’s mistress of nine years, actress Carole Mallory. The material includes photos, interview transcripts and notes from the writing lessons he gave her. What researchers would most likely be interested in, and what Leslie Morris, Harvard’s curator of modern books and manuscripts, regards as “important” are Mailer’s hand-written edits and notes on several of Mallory’s manuscripts. | In April 2008, Harvard University purchased seven boxes of letters, books and papers from Mailer’s mistress of nine years, actress Carole Mallory. The material includes photos, interview transcripts and notes from the writing lessons he gave her. What researchers would most likely be interested in, and what Leslie Morris, Harvard’s curator of modern books and manuscripts, regards as “important” are Mailer’s hand-written edits and notes on several of Mallory’s manuscripts.{{efn|An example of a Mailer edit involved changing the phrase “stick that up your English tushy” to “stick that up your Hungarian bottom.” There was also a recommendation that Mallory delete a reference to “nibbling his bullets.”}} | ||
===III. Mailer And His Others: The Personification Of ''Agon?''=== | ===III. Mailer And His Others: The Personification Of ''Agon?''=== | ||
Taking all the articles written about Mailer in the last ten years in hand, one could select a set of which compare Mailer to another writer, usually in not very surprising ways, but the interesting tendency is for critics to begin to see Mailer less in terms of ''agon'' and more in terms of affiliation. Mailer has been | Taking all the articles written about Mailer in the last ten years in hand, one could select a set of which compare Mailer to another writer, usually in not very surprising ways, but the interesting tendency is for critics to begin to see Mailer less in terms of ''agon'' and more in terms of affiliation. Mailer has been | ||
often understood as a rival of other writers, and this perspective is a large aspect of his own self creation. His 1959 article, “Quick and Expensive Comments on the Talent in the Room,” was perhaps Mailer’s Rubicon: his appraisals of James Jones, William Styron, Truman Capote, Jack Kerouac, Saul Bellow, and so forth made it clear that Mailer was not destined to become a literary politician. Mailer wrote in ''The Armies of the Night'' that he thought of himself as a counter-puncher, and his literary feuds and rivalries, including spats and major feuds with writers such as James Baldwin and Gore Vidal, as well as his battles with larger movements such as his engagement with feminism that led to ''The Prisoner of Sex'', reveal the essential truth of Richard Poirier’s claim that Mailer never stopped being a war novelist. If Mailer has always had reliable Orwellian intuitions about the ways in which American political forces drift toward war to enhance an internal organization rather than ward off external threat, then perhaps it could be said it | often understood as a rival of other writers, and this perspective is a large aspect of his own self creation. His 1959 article, “Quick and Expensive Comments on the Talent in the Room,” was perhaps Mailer’s Rubicon: his appraisals of James Jones, William Styron, Truman Capote, Jack Kerouac, Saul Bellow, and so forth made it clear that Mailer was not destined to become a literary politician. Mailer wrote in ''The Armies of the Night'' that he thought of himself as a counter-puncher, and his literary feuds and rivalries, including spats and major feuds with writers such as James Baldwin and Gore Vidal, as well as his battles with larger movements such as his engagement with feminism that led to ''The Prisoner of Sex'', reveal the essential truth of Richard Poirier’s claim that Mailer never stopped being a war novelist. If Mailer has always had reliable Orwellian intuitions about the ways in which American political forces drift toward war to enhance an internal organization rather than ward off external threat, then perhaps it could be said it | ||