“crouched like a boxer”: Ibid.
“No book I wrote”: SA, 141.
“isolated and bored”: MBM, 322.
“going off in a new”: Christopher Bollen, “Norman Mailer, Writer,” V magazine, January/February 2003, 7.
“A Shaky Start”: Time, 10-27-67, 25.
“really tied the thing together”: MBM, 316.
“The average reporter”: AON, 78.
“Now we may leave”: Ibid., 12.
read a long chapter: SA, 99.
The Education of Henry Adams: Published by Houghton Mifflin in 1918. Using the third person personal as effectively as the major writers who had employed it both before him and after him (Thucydides, Julius Caesar, Gertrude Stein), he writes about the huge changes, especially in technology, that he observed over his long life. The grandson of John Quincy Adams, the sixth president, Henry Adams (1838–1918), was also acquainted with Albert Einstein, as well as many major American political figures and artists of England and the United States.
“It’s as if I”: SA, 99.
“damned odd”: Ibid., 127.
“part of the ego”: Ibid., 86.
“already laid out”: MBM, 321.
forty thousand words: NM to EY, 11-20-67.
“I was stunned”: MBM, 322.
“I think we should”: Willie Morris, New York Days (Boston: Little, Brown, 1993), 217.
Beverly cooked: Ibid., 218.
“On one especially”: Ibid.
“frizzy hair”: North Toward Home (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1967), 358.
“The Steps of the Pentagon”: Harper’s, March 1968, 47–103; rpt., in revised form as Book I of The Armies of the Night (NY: New American Library, 1968).
“Look, I wish”: Morris, New York Days, 218.
“I said, ‘Umbashrien’ ”: MLT, 471.
“History as a Novel”: Published as “The Battle of the Pentagon,” Commentary, April 1968; rpt., as Book II of AON.
“only an afterthought”: Morris, New York Days, 219.
“old dear great”: “Up the Family Tree” (review of Making It), PR, Spring 1968; rpt., EE, 171–97.
Beverly was searching: Morris, New York Days, 219.
“dirty little secret”: Podhoretz, Making It, xvi–xvii.
“Mailer-like bid”: Ibid., 356.
“very nasty indeed”: Norman Podhoretz, Breaking Ranks (NY: Harper & Row, 1979), 221.
“agreeable variety”: EE, 176.
“squalid yard”: EE, 172.
“Here I was”: MLT, 473.
“himself as a literary character”: EE, 180.
“One is advancing”: Ibid., 181.
“forced to jog”: Ibid., 189.
“muted limited account”: Ibid., 187–88.
“Podhoretz apes”: Robert Kirsch, “Hang-ups of Podhoretz in Aping Mailer,” Los Angeles Times, 1-14-68.
“invariably as attractive”: EE, 187.
“deserted his possibilities”: EE, 189.
“was probably too cruel”: Andrew O’Hagan, “Norman Mailer: The Art of Fiction,” The Paris Review Interviews III, 425.
“probably would dislike”: Podhoretz, Ex-Friends, 214.
Among the major reviews: John Simon, “Mailer on the March,” Hudson Review, Autumn 1968, 541–45; Mario Puzo, “Generalissimo Mailer: Hero of His Own Dispatches,” Book World (Chicago Tribune), 4-28-68; “First Person Singular,” Time, 2-23-68, 81.
“Willie, if I ever”: NM to Willie Morris, 3-7-69.
“diary-essay-tract-sermon”: Alfred Kazin, “The Trouble He’s Seen,” NYTBR, 5-5-68; rpt., JML, Critical Essays on Norman Mailer, 62.
“the best American writers”: Ibid., 64–65.
Death in Life: (NY: Random House, 1967).
“He immediately took BJ”: JML interview with Robert J. Lifton, 9-14-10. Lifton repeats the story in his memoir, Witness to an Extreme Century (NY: Free Press, 2011), 355–56.
“Your speaker is here”: “Accepting the National Book Award,” EE, 254–55.
“pleasant”: NM to MK, 3-4-68.
“the movies are not there”: Gelmis, CNM, 167.
“the horror of life”: Ibid., 168.
“Making movies is a religious”: Ibid., 172.
over $70,000: Ibid., 158.
“below the reality”: Ibid., 160.
“people were pegged”: Michael Chaiken, “The Master’s Mercurial Mistress,” 38–39.
Jack Newfield: A well-known leftist journalist who wrote for VV and other newspapers, Newfield (1938–2004) was a friend of Robert F. Kennedy’s and wrote Robert Kennedy: A Memoir (NY: Nation Books, 2003), and several books about New York City politics.
Newfield wrote a piece: “On the Steps of a Zeitgeist,” VV, 5-30-68; rpt., JML, Critical Essays on Norman Mailer (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1986), 99–103.
“Norman Mailer, novelist, counterpuncher”: Ibid., 100.
“I want a guarantee”: Ibid., 101.
“they are an active”: Ibid., 102.
“Norman Mailer is one”: Ibid.
“with every stimulus”: “A Course in Filmmaking,” New American Review, August 1971; rpt., Maidstone: A Mystery (NY: New American Library, 1971), 157. Criterion Films (Eclipse Series 35) reissued remastered versions of Maidstone, Wild 90, and Beyond the Law in 2012, with notes by Michael Chaiken.
“there had not been a President”: AON, 135.
“unbelievably paranoiac”: JML interview with Carol Stevens, 7-5-11.
James Toback: Writer and in some cases also the director of several important films, Toback (b. 1944), was a longtime friend of NM’s, and also worked with his son Michael on film projects, including Two Girls and Guy (1997).
“There was a fair amount”: JML’s questions for James Toback, 8-14-10, interview conducted by Michael Chaiken.
“tacitly understood”: MM, 159.
“a bunch of enforced existentialists”: Ibid., 139.
“You crazy fool”: MM, 121. See Michael Mailer’s account, “Over-Exposed—My First Taste of Filmmaking,” PlumHamptons, June 2011, 209.
“all too unhappily”: MM, 177.
Toback’s Esquire article: “At Play in the Fields of the Bored,” Esquire, December 1968; rpt., MM, 8–21.
“When we discussed it”: JML’s questions for James Toback, 8-14-10, conducted by Michael Chaiken.
“they’re part of a certain”: JML interview with Michael Chaiken, 4-19-11.
“We came here”: AP, “Mailer at Venice with Film Aiming to Be Memorable,” NYT, 8-31-70, 21.
“drew more than anybody”: NM to MK, 10-21-70.
Guy Domville: The story is best told in the novelized version of the event by David Lodge, Author, Author (NY: Viking, 2004).
“came under the head [ing]”: John M. Lee, “Mailer, in London, Trades Jabs with Audience over Film,” NYT, 10-17-70, 21.
“my failed cinematic masterpiece”: SA, 198.
spending $125,000: NM to MK, 7-28-68.
shares in The Village Voice: MM, 156.
“the Republic hovered”: Miami and the Siege of Chicago (NY: New American Library, 1968), 14.
“God may have withdrawn”: Not located.
“There had never been”: MSC, 46.
“inner debate”: Ibid., 44.
“Most of them were ill-proportioned”: Ibid., 34–35.
“he had the presence”: Ibid., 71–72.
“body armoring”: See Theodore P. Wolfe’s translation of Reich’s 1933 study, Character Analysis (NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1970).
spent ten days: NM to EY, 9-30-68.
“The reporter was sentimental”: MSC, 85–86.
“police riot”: The phrase was used in “The Walker Report,” formally titled Rights in Conflict (Chicago: National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, 1968).
“people whose ancestors”: MSC, 104.
“Gestapo tactics”: Ibid., 180.
“It seemed to him”: Ibid., 185.
“had allowed h
im to write”: Ibid., 187.
“potential militancy”: Ibid., 188.
“Write good, baby”: Ibid., 190.
By August 21: NM to Susan Mailer, 8-21-68.
fifty thousand words: NM to EY, 9-30-68.
“more conventional”: Eliot Fremont-Smith, “Family Report,” NYT, 10-28-68, 45.
“to unfold”: Jack Richardson, “The Aesthetics of Norman Mailer,” NYRB, 5-8-69, 3–4.
“holds up better”: Frank Rich, “Introduction,” Miami and the Siege of Chicago (NY: New York Review of Books, 2008), vii–xi.
NINE: POLITICIAN TO PRISONER
In addition to the sources identified below, the following were drawn on: JML’s “Mailer Log”; JML’s unpublished interviews with NM and BW. NM’s letters are located at the HRC.
articles for Life: NM to EY, 3-17-69.
“the real had become”: OFM, 141.
suggestions from three writer friends: Michael Gross, “Norman Mailer: The Writer as Candidate,” New York, 4-6-98.
Gloria Steinem: One of the most celebrated American feminists, Steinem (b. 1934), is a distinguished journalist and the author of several books, including a biography of Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn: Norma Jeane (NY: Henry Holt, 1986).
“bring them whole”: AON, 135.
“with the heart”: William Inge to NM, 5-29-68.
“the disease of the 20th century”: NM to Inge, 6-15-68.
“One key, one solution”: Emerson: Essays and Lectures, 966.
honor guard: MSC, 203–4.
Weidenfeld and Nicolson: AON was the first of NM’s books published by this firm; later it published DPP, WVN, MSC, OFM, and POS.
Harvard Board of Overseers: Thomas Nagel to NM, 7-24-68.
“comic, philosophical”: NM to Nagel, 8-2-68; see also Robert M. Smith, “Mailer and a Member of S.D.S. Seeking Posts on Harvard’s Board of Overseers,” NYT, 4-21-69, 37.
“an auspicious moment”: Grunwald to NM, 9-26-68; NM to Grunwald, 9-30-68.
Newsweek beat it: Raymond Sokolov, “Flying High with Mailer,” 12-9-68.
“the poorest part”: MSC, 203.
“the awful cry”: Ibid., 221.
“balance every moment”: Ibid., 93.
“enjoying a dalliance”: Ibid., 94.
“illimitable funds”: Ibid.
honorary degree: Honorary Doctor of Letters degree on 6-4-69.
“feeling a little tired”: NM, form letter, early 1969.
Carolyn Mason, invite: Joe Flaherty, Managing Mailer (NY: Coward-McCann, 1970), 15.
Jimmy Breslin: A Pulitzer Prize–winning newspaper columnist who writes from the perspective of ordinary people, Breslin (b. 1930), is also an accomplished novelist and investigative reporter.
“street smarts”: Flaherty, Managing Mailer, 18.
“could be matched”: Ibid.
“hip left-right coalition”: Ibid., 80.
“Electoral politics”: Ibid., 20.
“Do you know something”: Ibid., 23.
full-page ad: VV, 4-17-69, 13.
ticket as comptroller: See “Gloria Steinem Remembers Norman Mailer,” NYT, 11-12-07.
“either because of fatigue”: Carolyn G. Heilbrun, The Education of a Woman: The Life of Gloria Steinem (NY: Dial, 1995), 178.
“You’re a half hour late”: Flaherty, Managing Mailer, 32.
staff was hired: Unless otherwise noted, campaign information comes from Flaherty, Managing Mailer.
Giuliani was quoted: Sam Roberts, “Ideas and Trends; A City Asks for a Return on Its Dollar,” NYT, 1-15-95.
“Well, those farmers”: Flaherty, Managing Mailer, 43.
“for five years”: Ibid., 48.
“Mailer was after all”: Ibid., 49.
“swore to Christ”: Ibid., 50.
several other campaign ideas: See Running Against the Machine: A Grass Roots Race for the New York Mayoralty by Norman Mailer, Jimmy Breslin, Peter Maas, Gloria Steinem, and others, ed. Peter Manso (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969), a compilation of material concerning the campaign; and NM’s “Letter from Norman Mailer to the Voting Democrats of New York,” NYT, 6-15-68, Sec. E, 7.
“real people”: Managing Mailer, 52–53.
“I’d piss on it”: Flaherty, Managing Mailer, 58.
“Where are the pigs”: Ibid., 61.
“candidates had become”: Ibid., 66.
“would not deal”: Ibid., 67.
“obviously had been”: Ibid.
disproportionate amount of coverage: See JML and Donna Pedro Lennon, Norman Mailer: Works and Days, 67–74, for a list of media stories on the campaign.
“The press was horny”: Flaherty, Managing Mailer, 130.
“the grace of the Doge”: Women’s Wear Daily, 5-2-69, 12.
“Why Are We in New York?”: NYTM, 5-18-69; rpt., EE, 322–38.
angry man showed up: JML interview with Danielle Mailer, 10-19-11.
“booze-laden table”: Flaherty, Managing Mailer, 106.
“a bunch of spoiled pigs”: Ibid., 113.
“Why didn’t you tell me”: Ibid., 119.
damning account: Sidney E. Zion, “Mailer Plays a Nightclub Date in Mayoral Quest,” NYT, 5-9-69, 24.
“genuinely scary”: Flaherty, Managing Mailer, 121.
“This guy is bullying me”: Ibid., 122.
“portrait of repentance”: Ibid., 123.
“Like the girl with the curl”: Ibid., 161.
“his head a full-blown mass”: Ibid., 182.
“Railbird’s Picks”: Ibid., 183.
“Maybe, maybe”: Ibid., 184.
“on many a morning”: OFM, 5.
election vote totals: “New York City Mayoral Elections,” Wikipedia entry.
“Did Mailer save”: Flaherty, Managing Mailer, 219.
“considered and thoughtful”: Theodore White, quoted in Flaherty, Managing Mailer, 220.
“He would never write”: OFM, 5.
“an earthy woman”: Flaherty, Managing Mailer, 64.
“It was impossible”: OFM, 436–37.
“disembodied spirit”: Ibid., 6.
an article appeared: Henry Raymont, “Million Advance for Mailer Seen,” NYT, 5-13-69, 44.
“if you’re gonna be paid”: Ron Rosenbaum, “The Siege of Mailer: Hero to Historian,” VV, 1-21-71; rpt., CNM, 180.
“disease of technology”: NM to EY, 3-17-69.
“tempted to take a shortcut”: Matthew Grace and Steve Roday, “Mailer on Mailer: An Interview,” New Orleans Review 3 (1973), 232.
“afraid he would write”: MBM, 349.
“You wouldn’t let a commercial”: Barbara A. Bannon, “Authors and Editors: Norman Mailer,” Publishers Weekly, 1-25-71, 178.
“right wing for Attila”: MBM, 351.
“not dull people”: Matthew Grace and Steve Roday, “Mailer on Mailer,” New Orleans Review, 233.
“how to locate myself”: NM to Ned Bradford, 4-12-69.
“How can I participate”: MBM, 347.
“If I could have gone”: Barbara A. Bannon, “Authors and Editors,” Publishers Weekly, 179.
Beverly embarked: MBM, 356, and Tom Sullivan and Harold Banks, “Mailer Capers . . . His n’ Hers in Divorce Ditty,” Boston Herald, late October 1979.
“I can’t write anything”: Ralph Graves, “Norman Mailer at the Typewriter,” Life, 8-29-69.
The influence of Moby-Dick: NM to JML, 5-30-90.
innards of the rocket: This comparison originates with John P. Sisk, “Aquarius Rising,” Commentary, May 1971, 83.
“to release the string”: OFM, 55.
“and in the midst”: Ibid., 100.
“Barney was adorable”: JML interview with Carol Stevens, 6-13-11.
“lectured me on the merits”: Ibid.
“keeps opening like a string”: NM to Ginsberg, 12-9-69.
PR symposium: “Black Power: A Discussion,” PR, Spring 1968; rpt., EE, 305–9.
essay in Look: “Looking for the Meat and Potatoes—Thoughts on Bl
ack Power,” Look, 1-7-69; rpt., EE, 287–304.
“scandalously late”: MSC, 51–52.
“heartily sick”: Ibid., 53.
“in the cells of his existence”: AFM, 341.
“impressive voice”: OFM, 134.
“as if he were looking”: Ibid., 136–37.
“magic would be at its heart”: Ibid., 139.
Thanatosphere: Ibid., 109, and “What Apollo Has Meant to Mankind,” Christian Science Monitor, 1-3-73, 13.
“the greatest achievement”: Leticia Kent, “The Rape of the Moon: Norman Mailer Talks About Sexual Lunacy and the WASP,” Vogue, February 1971, 135.
“It’s like doing a benevolent”: NM to Luke Breit, 3-?-70.
“near agreeable”: NM to Larry L. King, 9-8-70.
“I’m a believer”: Myra MacPherson, “The Nonviolent Norman Mailer,” Washington Post, 5-8-70, B1.
“bums”: Nancy Scannell, “Norman Mailer to Serve Sentence,” Washington Post, 5-6-70.
“are the babblings”: Myra MacPherson, “The Nonviolent Norman Mailer,” B2.
“cathedral of hypocrisy”: Nancy Scannel, “Norman Mailer to Serve Sentence.”
“There are few places”: AFM, 518.
According to Carol: JML interview with Carol Stevens, 3-28-09.
“He could have killed”: JML interview with Carol Stevens, 3-28-09.
“It was”: POS, 11–12.
“was in a period”: JML interview with Carol Stevens, 6-18-11.
“I had heard”: Alan Levy, “Ezra Pound’s Voice of Silence,” NYTM, 1-9-72, 68.
“The funny thing”: NM to Mary Jane Matz, 12-3-70.
“staggering”: NM to R. W. B. Lewis, 9-21-70.
“cavorting for Time’s”: POS, 15–16.
“too proper”: Ibid., 16.
“major ideological”: Ibid.
“Only a fool”: Ibid., 16–17.
exploitation of women: “People,” Time, 9-14-70.
“There was a tissue”: POS, 17.
“big, fat discursive piece”: NM to Anne Barry, 9-21-70.
“often sounds like”: Hector Arce, “Vidal Statistics,” Women’s Wear Daily, 11-2-70.
“marriages, Vidal-0”: NM to Women’s Wear Daily, 11-12-70.
“enlarging human freedom”: Introduction to Touchstone edition of Sexual Politics (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1990), xviii.
Sexual Politics: (NY: Doubleday, 1970), ibid.
“There was a great wave”: Introduction to Touchstone edition of Sexual Politics.
August 30 Time: “The Liberation of Kate Millett,” Time, 8-30-70.
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