Diana Trilling, July 14, 1965

From Project Mailer
NORMAN MAILER’s Letters
607 Commercial Street
Provincetown, Massachusetts
July 14, 1965

Dear Diana,

Thank you for the clipping and the nice reports. I’m not sure I know what you mean by the absence of a Marlow,[1] in An American Dream. Superficially it seems to me that Rojack embodies a sufficient amount of civilization to avoid meaninglessness, but to defend that in detail means a long letter, and then we shall both be breaking our vows to write many pages this summer and few letters. Therefore I save the discussion for the pleasure of seeing you and Lionel in September. By the way, our place is on the sea and most agreeable. I hope you and Lionel (and Jim if he’s so inclined) are in the mood to come here when you get back.

Love,
Norman

P.S. There’s a somewhat unintegrated book by a man named Christopher Lasch, called if I remember The New Radicalism in America, but it has a very good chapter on Mabel Dodge Luhan[2] in which Lawrence figures prominently, and I think you might enjoy it.

This page is part of
An American Dream Expanded.

Notes

  1. The “Marlow” Trilling refers to is the narrator-participant used by Joseph Conrad in several fictional works he wrote based on his seafaring experiences: “Youth,” Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness and Chance.
  2. Mabel Dodge Luhan was a supporter of D. H. Lawrence when he lived in New Mexico.