In the source notes that follow, I have cited where I have obtained the quotations and facts used in the book. There are three exceptions, namely my interviews, conversations, and e-mail exchanges with the late Norman Mailer, his sister, Barbara Mailer Wasserman, and Lawrence Schiller. Because of the number of conversations with these three key sources over many years—in Mailer’s case going back to the early 1970s—I have not tried to date quotations from them unless their comments have been published. The dates of my conversations with the more than eighty other individuals I have interviewed are given in the source notes.
AUTHOR’S INTERVIEWS
Anna Lou Humes Aldrich, 12-17-10; Peter Alson, 8-19-08, 4-23-12, 9-19-12; Fred Ambrose, 8-16-09; Nancy Ambrose, 8-16-09; Walter Anderson, 4-20-11; John Bailey, 4-15-12; Anne Barry, 5-4-11, 5-8-12, 11-23-12, 11-24-12; Adele Becker, 1-21-07, 4-8-09; Robert Begiebing, 3-3-12; Beverly Bentley, 5-26-11; Mashey Bernstein, 5-24-09; John Bowers, 3-23-10; Brock Brower, 12-30-10; Millicent Brower, 5-14-09; Tina Brown, 5-31-12; Philip Bufithis, 5-17-11; Christopher Busa, 3-14-09; Sal Cetrano, 10-?-12; Michael Chaiken, 4-19-11; Don DeLillo, 3-29-10; Laura Adams Dunham, 1-24-12; David Ebershoff, 3-26-10; Jason Epstein, 6-25-03, 11-6-08; Harry Evans, 5-31-12; Edwin Fancher, 10-18-10; Mia Feroleto, 8-?-12; Eileen Geist Finletter, 4-15-10; Ivan Fisher, 4-14-09; Eileen Fredrickson, 10-15-11, 12-12-11, 5-19-12; Aaron Goldman, fall, 2004; Doris Kearns Goodwin, 12-14-11; Richard Goodwin, 12-14-11; Thomas Heffernan, 5-24-10; Carol Holmes, 4-14-09, 11-29-11; Margo Howard, 5-24-10; Aurora Huston, 1-17-12, 2-10-12; William Kennedy, 8-4-11, 8-5-11; Mickey Knox, 9-15-08, 9-16-08, 9-17-08; Rudy Langlais, 3-1-12; Barry Leeds, 9-27-10; Peter Lennon, 3-14-11; Robert J. Lifton, 9-14-10; Tom Luddy, 3-?-12; Danielle Mailer, 8-20-08, 8-3-11, 10-19-11, 1-11-12, 4-17-12, 5-21-12, 4-17-13; Elizabeth (Betsy) Mailer, 11-29-11; Kate Mailer, 3-11-13; John Buffalo Mailer, 1-29-09, 10-16-10, 4-24-12; Maggie Mailer, 3-27-09; Matthew Mailer, 8-21-08, 12-28-11, 9-5-12; Michael Mailer, 11-1-03, 8-21-08, 12-28-11; Norris Church Mailer, 5-13-08, 11-17-08, 4-15-09, 1-30-09, 3-28-10, 10-16-10; Stephen Mailer, 11-5-08, 11-20-11, 3-22-12; Susan Mailer, 9-5-07, 10-29-10, 5-13-11, 8-18-11, 11-03-11, 1-23-12, 4-18-13; William Majeski, 4-23-12, 6-4-12; Elisabeth Malaquais, 6-10-10; Clifford Maskovsky, 2-5-10; Peter McEachern, 8-22-12; Legs McNeil, 7-19-12; Jeffrey Michelson, 7-24-11, 12-31-11; Adele Morales, 4-?-12; Adeline Lubell Naiman, 8-21-07; Mary Oliver, 9-20-11; Dotson Rader, 3-25-10, 3-8-12; Sam Radin, 5-23-10; Jack Richardson, 4-6-11; Lee Roscoe, summer, 2010; Carol Schneider, 3-24-10; Jack Scovil, 3-24-10; Irwin Shaw, 6-?-83; Robert Silvers, 4-15-09; Barbara Probst Solomon, 5-13-09, 3-26-10, 4-23-10; Richard G. Stern, 12-14-10; Carol Stevens, 3-28-09, 5-15-11, 6-13-11, 6-18-11, 9-21-11, 4-12-12; Richard Stratton, 4-15-09; Gay Talese, 1-23-11; Nan A. Talese, 10-19-10; Bonnie Timmerman, 5-28-12; James Toback, 8-14-10; John T. “Ike” Williams, 10-23-11; Erin Cressida Wilson, 11-15-11, 5-15-12, 4-21-13; Lois Mayfield Wilson, 11-15-11; Veronica Windholz, 3-25-10; Rhoda Wolf, 1-30-09, 5-11-12; Naomi Zack, 1-2-12, 1-3-12.
ABBREVIATIONS
Titles of books by and about Mailer cited in the Notes are abbreviated as follows:
AAD
An American Dream
AE
Ancient Evenings
AFM
Advertisements for Myself
AON
The Armies of the Night
BE
The Big Empty
BS
Barbary Shore
CAC
Cannibals and Christians
CIF
The Castle in the Forest
CNM
Conversations with Norman Mailer
DFL
Deaths for the Ladies (and Other Disasters)
DP
The Deer Park
EE
Existential Errands
ES
The Executioner’s Song
FIG
The Fight
GAL
Genius and Lust: A Journey Through the Major Writings of Henry Miller
HG
Harlot’s Ghost
LNM
The Lives of Norman Mailer (Carl Rollyson)
MAR
Marilyn: A Biography
MBD
Mailer: A Biography (Mary Dearborn)
MBM
Mailer: A Biography (Hilary Mills)
MG
Modest Gifts: Poems and Drawings
MLT
Mailer: His Life and Times (Peter Manso)
MM
Maidstone: A Mystery
MSC
Miami and the Siege of Chicago
NAD
The Naked and the Dead
OFM
Of a Fire on the Moon
OG
On God: An Uncommon Conversation
OT
Oswald’s Tale
PAP
Pieces and Pontifications
POP
Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man
POS
The Prisoner of Sex
PP
The Presidential Papers
SA
The Spooky Art
TC
A Ticket to the Circus (Norris Church Mailer)
TGD
Tough Guys Don’t Dance
TOT
The Time of Our Time
WN
The White Negro
WVN
Why Are We in Vietnam?
Publications and names cited in the Notes are abbreviated as follows:
MR
Mailer Review
NYRB
New York Review of Books
NYT
New York Times
NYTBR
New York Times Book Review
NYTM
New York Times Magazine
PR
Partisan Review
VV
Village Voice
AM
Adele Mailer
BW
Barbara Wasserman
EY
Eiichi Yamanishi
FG
Francis I. Gwaltney
FM
Fan Mailer
HJ
Harvard Journal (Mailer)
HN
Harvard Notebook (Mailer)
HRC
Harry Ransom Center
IBM
Isaac Barnett Mailer
JM
Jean Malaquais
JML
J. Michael Lennon
MK
Mickey Knox
NCM
Norris Church Mailer
NM
Norman Mailer
PROLOGUE: THE RIPTIDES OF FAME: JUNE 1948
NM’s letters are located at the HRC.
“Pourquoi Paris?”: Stanley Karnow: Paris in the Fifties (NY: Times Books, 1997), 3.
drove to Italy in a small Peugeot: Unless otherwise noted, descriptions of the trip are from BW’s letter to Robert F. Lucid, 1-12-98.
The Little Foxes: Hellman’s play premiered at the National Theatre in New York on 2-15-39 and ran for 410 performances.
“a lot of respect”: NM to William Raney, 6-7-48.
“batches of reviews”: NM to Jenny Silverman (mother-in-law), 5-12-48. He said he’d received more mail that week “than ever in my life.”
“The thing I’ve got to get down”: NM, “Journal May 27 [1948]” (HRC).
New York editor: Robert N. Linscott, Random House.
“It was the luckiest timing”: Bob Minzesheimer, “To Mailer, A Good Soldier Puts Words on Paper,” USA Today, 4-10-03, 7D.
“caught in a riptide”: Margo Hammond, “Norman Mailer on the Media and the Message,” Book Babes, Poynter Institute, 2-6-04, www.poynter.org.
“I used to feel that I didn’t”: Michael Lee, “A Conversation with Norman Mailer,” Cape Cod Voice, 8-2-01, 12.
“an acquired appetite”: Alastair McKay, “Still Stormin’,” Scotsman, 7-22-00, S2.
“was the last time Norman”: James Atlas, “Life with Mailer,” NYTM, 9-9-79, 88.
“felt kind of blue”: Louise Levitas, “The Naked Are Fanatics and the Dead Don’t Care,” New York Star, 8-22-48; rpt., CNM, 6.
ONE: LONG BRANCH AND BROOKLYN
In addition to the sources identified below, the following were drawn on: Fan Mailer’s “Fan’s Memoir”; BW’s “In Search of Mother’s Age”; Adele Becker’s (NM’s cousin) “The Schneider Family”; JML’s “Mailer Log,” a record of the last thirty months of NM’s life; Robert F. Lucid’s 1989 interview with NM; JML’s unpublished interviews with NM and BW. NM’s letters are located at the HRC.
The Mailers and the Schneiders: NM believed his last name had been anglicized. In “The Book of the First-Born,” an unpublished autobiographical novel fragment (HRC), he gives his grandfather Mailer the name Ivan Mirilovicz.
three towns: Libau and Daugavpils in Latvia are also possible cities of origin.
“placed madness next to practicality”: PP, 190–91. NM’s column in Commentary, titled “Responses and Reactions,” was devoted mainly to elucidations of Martin Buber’s Tales of the Hasidim, published in two volumes, The Early Masters; The Later Masters (Ten Rungs: Hasidic Sayings) (NY: Schocken, 1947–48); rpt., foreword by Chaim Potok, Schocken, 1991. The Commentary columns appeared every other month from December 1962 to October 1963, and were collected, in part, in PP and CAC.
“Inside there is a narrow marble counter”: NAD, 481.
“his maternal grandfather”: Brock Brower, “Norman,” Other Loyalties: A Politics of Personality (NY: Atheneum, 1968), 132. Charles “Cy” Rembar, Beck’s son, preceded NM at Harvard and Bertram, Joe’s son, followed him.
“That’s where all the brains”: MLT, 13.
“dapper,” “fussy,” and “punctilious”: Robert Begiebing, “Twelfth Round: An Interview with Norman Mailer,” Harvard Magazine 85 (1983); rpt., CNM, 316.
“elegant impoverished figure”: Marie Brenner, “Mailer Goes Egyptian,” New York, 3-28-83, 36.
“was very English”: Begiebing, “Twelfth Round,” CNM, 316–17.
“I. B. from Brooklyn”: Jimmy Breslin’s friend Fat Thomas was I. B. Mailer’s bookie. Jimmy Breslin, I Want to Thank My Brain for Remembering Me (Boston: Little, Brown, 1996), 31.
born in this country: Barney also lied about his country of birth, claiming on his U.S. visa application in 1919 that he was born in South Africa (HRC). NM thought this was the case until the early 1960s.
“As time goes by”: NM to IBM, 5-21-44.
“My mother”: Carole Mallory, “Norman Mailer,” Elle, January 1986, 38.
“very, very upset”: Toby Thompson, “Mailer’s Alpha and Omega,” Vanity Fair, October 1991, 158.
Barbara quickly recognized: Adele Becker notes this in her memoir and BW confirmed it.
“She was observant”: Bill Broadway, “Norman Mailer: New Advertisements for Himself,” New Millennium Writings, 3, Spring/Summer 1998, 18.
“The Adventures of Bob and Paul”: HRC.
“Boxing Lessons”: HRC.
“The Martian Invasion”: HRC; the first chapter appeared in First Words: Earliest Writing from Favorite Contemporary Authors, ed. Paul Mandel-baum (Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin, 1993).
“This novel filled”: Steven Marcus, “Norman Mailer: An Interview,” Paris Review, Winter/Spring, 1964; rpt., CNM, 78.
On his application to Harvard: HRC.
“a quiet section”: Levitas, CNM, 9.
“in those days”: Robert Begiebing, “Twelfth Round,” CNM, 308.
“had to make certain basic distinctions”: Christopher Hitchens, “Interview with Norman Mailer,” New Left Review, March/April 1997, 117.
“I was a physical coward”: AFM, 22.
never got into fistfights: Transcript of The Phil Donahue Show, WGN-TV Chicago, 11-21-79.
“He seemed to be on a shorter leash”: MLT, 27.
“was very proper”: Ibid., 29.
“an ego that was lopsided”: Ramona Koval, “Norman Mailer Interview,” 9-1-00, www.abc.net.ay/arts/new/arts_01092000.htm.
“We also had a sense”: Eugene Kennedy, “The Essential Mailer,” Chicago Tribune Magazine, 9-9-84, rpt., CNM, 333.
“Very intense”: Toby Thompson, “Mailer’s Alpha and Omega,” 154.
“the most fabulous kid”: Ibid.
“I’d been frightened”: Ibid., 156.
felt he knew Humphrey Bogart: “I always felt that Humphrey Bogart was an uncle of mine, and I never met him. But he had the same intensity in my psychic life as a strong uncle I once had.” Transcript of Mailer’s America (French documentary, 1998), Tape 11, 2.
“I worshipped him”: Quoted in introduction, Charles Rembar, The End of Obscenity: The Trials of Lady Chatterley, Tropic of Cancer and Fanny Hill (NY: Bantam, 1969), vi.
“He loved to teach”: BW, “Growing Up with Norman,” MR 1 (2007), 176.
the candy store: MLT, 30.
bar mitzvah speech: HRC.
“the rabbi looked very pale”: Marie Brenner, “Mailer Goes Egyptian,” New York, 37.
“MAYOFIS JEW”: According to Yiddist Michael Wex, author of Born to Kvetch (NY: St. Martin’s, 2005), a Mayofis Jew is “the Jewish counterpart of an Uncle Tom: servile, dancing for the goyim and saying ‘yassuh.’ ”
“Hitler has been in my mind”: JML, “The Castle in the Forest: A Conversation with Norman Mailer,” MR (2008), 424.
“I felt straddled”: Begiebing, CNM, 309.
“When launched”: Edward Pell, “His Childhood Was a Happy Time,” Daily Register (Red Bank, NJ), 12-12-66, 1.
“too many crystals”: Michael Lee, “A Conversation with Norman Mailer,” Cape Cod Voice. In 1992, NM said, “I’ve never written about Brooklyn in any real way. There’s a lot of things I haven’t written about. I think they’re probably crystals.” Gregory Feeley, “Waiting for Mailer’s Big One,” Million: The Magazine About Popular Fiction, January/February 1992, 13.
Crystals, as he explained: NM discussed memory crystals with Christopher Busa, “An Interview with Norman Mailer,” Provincetown Arts (1999), 27.
“I don’t feel joy”: Anthony Haden-Guest, “The Life of Norman,” Harpers & Queen, October 1997, 192.
student at Boys High: NM’s high school records are at the HRC.
vaulting over the horse: MBM, 49.
“In Brooklyn I was always”: Begiebing, CNM, 311.
One scheme dreamed up: MLT, 28.
“I could keep beat”: Ibid.
“High school’s that place”: Lawrence Grobel, “Norman Mailer: Stupidity Brings Out Violence in Me,” Endangered Species: Writers Talk About Their Craft, Their Visions, Their Lives (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 2001), 294.
“quiet, studious and inconsequential”: “Vital Statistics,” Parade, 12-16-84, 7.
“when I said I might go to Harvard”: Ramona Koval, “Norman Mailer Interview.”
TWO: HARVARD
In addition to the sources identified below, the following were drawn on: JML’s “Mailer Log”; NM’s untitled, handwritten, forty-nine-page journal, kept at Harvard from December 13, 1941, to May of 1942 (hereafter HJ); NM’s pocket notebook, begun circa February 1941 (hereafter HN); JML’s unpublished interviews with NM and BW. HN, HJ, and all of NM’s Harvard papers are located in the HRC, as are his letters.
“white men, gray men”: Theodore H. White, “Harvard Lies at the End of the Subway,” The Harvard Book: Selections from Three Centuries, ed. William Bentinck-Smith (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982), 293. The class structure White described persisted after he graduated. A Life (5-5-41) article on Harvard, “Harvard: America’s Great University Now Leads World,” describes commuter students as “the lowest undergraduate social stratum, once derided as ‘untouchables’ and long neglected by the administration.”
“had solved more delicate social situations”: Begiebing, CNM, 310.
four out of five of his friends: NM’s comments on his social circle and his new clothes are from ibid., 310–11.
“a young man go
ing”: NM to Lobos Jurik, 2-3-89.
“Unformed” is the word: HJ.
“a smiler”: MLT, 40.
We know that one of them was a George Petty: NM to FM, IBM, 10-8-39, 10-25-39.
When the band had appeared: JML interview with Millicent Brower, 5-14-09.
English A: See NM’s preface to Hallie and Whit Burnett’s Fiction Writer’s Handbook (NY: Barnes & Noble, 1975).
“about the dullest”: NM to FM, IBM, 10-25-39.
“Before I was seventeen”: AFM, 27.
“the monotony and the boredom”: “Interview: Norman Mailer,” 7-12-04, Academy of Achievement, www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/mai0int-1.
“Suddenly I realized you could write”: Steven Marcus, CNM, 79.
“the bitterest blow”: Begiebing, CNM, 314.
home for the Christmas holiday: HN.
“I threw down my pen”: Ramona Koval, “Norman Mailer Interview.”
“I can’t write humorously”: NM to FM, IBM, 2-18-40.
he accepted an invitation: NM to FM, IBM, 2-28-40.
an anecdote from his friend Larry Weiss: MBM, 47.
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