83.3

“Mailer Hits 60.” Article-interview by William Robertson. Miami Herald, 6 February, Sec. G, pp. 1–2. Longest report on the Lotos Club luncheon. Robertson quotes Mailer verbatim on his reasons for writing the novel (to explore the death customs of the Egyptians, and the immortality of the soul, and to write about a culture “before the Judeo-Christian begins”); and on why he hasn’t read Gore Vidal’s novel set in ancient times, Creation (“Gore is not the worst writer in the world….I don’t want to go off in directions that have nothing to do with what I’m doing”). See 83.2, 83.4, 83.5, 83.7.