“Judith still treats me”: NM to Aldridge, 3-8-93.
“a book on Oswald in Minsk”: Ibid.
ABC-TV docudrama: Schiller produced The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald for ABC-TV, broadcast in 1976.
“Larry Schiller makes Baron”: Liz Smith column, quoted by Andrew O’Hagan, “Oswaldworld,” London Review of Books, 12-4-95.
“Larry can be utterly”: NM to Bonnie B., 3-28-99.
“We started with Vaseline”: JML, “Long Legs, the American Tolstoy, Oswald and the KGB,” MR, 60–62.
“Every single word”: Ibid., 65.
advance excerpt from the first part: “Oswald in the U.S.S.R.,” New Yorker, 4-10-95, 56–99.
“or my publishers”: NM to Swanee Hunt, 7-7-93.
“I hope eventually”: NM to Peter Balbert, 10-4-93.
“scissors-and-paste job”: Doris Athineos, “Picasso Biographer in a Blue Period,” New York Observer.
When Richardson read: One likely source is Robert Taylor, “Mailer’s Latest Lines,” Boston Globe, 7-23-93, 39, 49.
“Guys and Droons”: NM’s drawings were on display at the Berta Walker Gallery in Provincetown, 7-23 to 8-4-93; NM defined a droon as “an oddball, someone who’s seriously skewed.”
“He’s not just”: Doris Athineos, “Picasso Biographer in a Blue Period,” New York Observer.
“let my hand”: Ibid.
“I hope”: Ibid.
“Obviously, Richardson sicced him”: Ibid.
“As I understood it”: JML interview with Nan Talese, 10-19-10.
“Well, this is just”: Ibid.
“it’s not fair”: Ibid.
“vertigo and fog”: Doug Smith, “Big Dealy,” New Republic, 12-13-93, 11–12.
also a conspiratorialist: NM later told DeLillo that he now doubted the single assassin theory.
“The sudden death”: OT, 198.
“the largest mountain”: “A Special Message for the First Edition from Norman Mailer,” Oswald’s Tale: An American Mystery (Franklin Center, PA: Franklin Library, 1995), unpaginated.
Oswald’s Tale: The first edition was published by Random House on 5-12-95.
“a dead whale decomposing”: OT, 351.
“Every morning I’d read”: Patricia Holt, “Norman Mailer Tells ‘Oswald’s Tale,’ ” San Francisco Chronicle, E2.
add a hundred-page epilogue: Holt.
“Oh, don’t make it”: Joseph Cummins, “Interview with Norman Mailer,” BOMC Insights, May 1995, 1.
“I started with one book”: “No Ordinary Secret Agent,” Newsweek, 4-24-95, 60.
“a huge and hideous”: William Grimes, “What Debt Does Hollywood Owe to Truth?,” NYT, 3-5-92.
“You’ve got a rose”: JML interview with Harry Evans, 5-31-12.
Epstein felt the same way: JML interview with Jason Epstein, 11-06-08.
“out of his mind”: JML, “Long Legs, The American Tolstoy, Oswald and the KGB,” MR, 49–51.
“I would have insisted”: Ibid., 51.
Marina and Lee: (NY: Harper & Row, 1977).
O. J. Simpson, JonBenét Ramsey, Robert Hanssen: American Tragedy: The Uncensored Story of the Simpson Defense (NY: Random House, 1996), written with James Willwerth; Perfect Murder, Perfect Town: JonBenét and the City of Boulder (NY: HarperCollins, 1997); Into the Mirror: The Life of Master Spy Robert P. Hanssen (NY: HarperCollins, 2002).
“We can talk”: JML, “Long Legs, The American Tolstoy, Oswald and the KGB,” MR, 52.
“brilliance”: Ibid., 55.
“discipline him”: OT, 786–88.
“difficult not to feel”: Ibid., 789–90.
“the results”: “Norman Mailer on Madonna: Like a Lady,” Esquire, August 1994; rpt., TOT, 1115.
mentioned his support to Liz Smith: Liz Smith, “Rumors Put Pfeiffer Onscreen as Evita,” Toledo Blade, 6-1-94, 19.
“an ego even larger”: TOT, 1117.
“a pint-size Italian American”: Ibid., 1114.
“to take her kinks”: Ibid., 1113.
“Confessions—in good society”: Ibid., 1133–34.
“a barrel wrapped in velvet”: Ibid., 1118.
“finally met a woman”: NM to Graham ?, 9-23-94.
1,700 pages: NM to Tom Fiske, 9-23-94.
down to 1,400: NM to Alex Hicks, 11-23-94.
forty-five-page excerpt: “Oswald in the U.S.S.R.,” New Yorker.
“Every insight”: “What American Haunts Us More?,” Parade, 5-14-95.
75 percent certain: Wil Haygood, “Mailer Obsessed,” Boston Globe, 68.
“boring and . . . derivative”: Michiko Kakutani, “Oswald and Mailer: The Eternal Basic Questions,” NYT, 4-25-95.
“Oswald’s struggle”: Andrew O’Hagan, “Oswaldworld,” London Review of Books.
“utterly convincing”: Allan Massie, “The Road from Minsk to Dallas,” Daily Telegraph, 9-2-95.
“I hoped there would”: Philip Martin, “American Psycho,” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 7-7-95.
“natural writerly prejudice”: Christopher Hitchens, “The Man Who Killed JFK,” Financial Times, 9-2-95.
“Everything in Mailer”: Martin Amis, “Fatally Flawed,” Sunday Times, 9-10-95, 1–2.
“What is never taken”: Andrew O’Hagan, “Oswaldworld,” London Review of Books.
an unsigned review: “The Russian Connection,” Economist, 7-10-95, 111–12.
“the most sensible review”: Jason Epstein to NM, 7-16-95.
“I admire Mailer”: Thomas Powers, “The Mind of an Assassin,” NYTBR, 4-30-95, 33.
“literary types”: “Norman Mailer’s Picasso,” Publishers Weekly, 3-4-96, S14.
major reviews: Michael Kimmelman, “Tough Guys Don’t Paint,” NYTBR, 10-15-95; Eunice Lipton, “Cubism Was a Guy Thing,” Nation, 11-6-95, 543–44; Roger Shattuck, “Brinkmanship,” NYRB, 1-11-96, 4–8.
“poaching on the turf”: Robert Taylor, “Mailer Conjures a Mailer-Like Picasso,” Boston Globe, 10-25-95.
“to make Picasso as real”: POP, xii.
“At a much higher”: Pete Hamill, “Kindred Spirits,” Art News, 213.
“I don’t mean to compare”: Bruce Barcott, “Picasso Couldn’t Box,” Seattle Weekly, 10-25-95, 19.
“He was the center”: Barbara Probst Solomon, “Callow Young Genius,” New York, 82.
“gambled on his ability”: POP, 357.
“After Cubism”: M. R. Montgomery, “Mailer vs. Picasso at Harvard,” Boston Globe, 11-14-95, 82.
“doomed to relive his obsessions”: POP, 352.
“as if work itself”: Ibid., 367.
“This is a biography”: “Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man,” Atlantic, November 1995, 145–46.
“the worst I’ve ever gotten”: M. R. Montgomery.
“an old-fashioned cut-and-paste job”: Michiko Kakutani, “Egos and Outlaws: Like Attracts Like,” NYT, 9-29-95, CI, C29.
“That does the job”: “Why Picasso Biography Quotes So Fully,” NYT, 10-3-95.
“just a commodity”: “Entretien: Norman Mailer and Jean Malaquais”: taped in late November or early December 1994, and broadcast on the ARTE network in early 1995; all quotations are from the transcript of the program.
“incomprehensible”: NM to JM, 6-28-95.
“The general tone”: NM to Jean-Pierre Catherine and Michael Seiler, 3-7-95.
“To this day”: JML interview with Elisabeth Malaquais, 6-10-10.
“There’s no equality”: NM to Elisabeth Malaquais, 9-8-95.
“Norman had become”: JML interview with Elisabeth Malaquais, 6-10-10.
“overcame his anger”: Ibid.
Planet Without Visa: Planéte sans Visa (Paris: Phébus, 1999).
satisfied America’s interest: NM to Don Carpenter, 7-21-95.
contacted the “Page Six”: Richard Johnson, “Mailer’s Ex-Lover Writes It Down,” New York Post, 9-15-95, 6.
According to Harry Evans: JML interview with Harry Evans, 5-31-12.
“my keen
and formidable agents”: CIF, acknowledgments page.
middling review: John W. Aldridge, “Documents as Narrative,” Atlantic, May 1995.
“And in truth”: NM to Aldridge, 1-24-96.
“angry and bruised”: NM to Susan Mailer, 11-29-95.
“are not taking account”: “Black and White Justice,” New York, 10-16-95, 29.
commencement address: NM received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Wilkes University, and gave the commencement address, 5-27-95.
found a Gideon Bible: Thomas Curwen, “The Art of Faith,” Los Angeles Times, 2-22-04.
“I couldn’t make”: Sean Abbott, “Mailer Goes to the Mountain,” At Random, 50.
“To my knowledge”: Sean Abbott, Ibid., 51.
“this odd moment”: Bill Broadway, “Norman Mailer: New Advertisements for Himself,” New Millennium Writings, 14.
Crossing the Threshold of Hope: (NY: Knopf, 1994).
On Social Concern: (Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 1987).
offer the Pope: Walter Goodman, “No, PEN Decides It Won’t Invite the Pope to Join,” NYT, 5-17-88, C20.
“the power of greed”: Sean Abbott, “Mailer Goes to the Mountain,” At Random, 50.
“I was curious”: Ibid.
“how good a story”: Donn Fry, “Mailer’s Literary Touch Backed by Audacity,” Seattle Times, 1-26-97.
“the spiritual or psychological keel”: Bruce Weber, “The Gospel According to Mailer,” NYT, 4-24-97, B1–B2.
“at the least worthy”: Thomas Curwen, “The Art of Faith,” Los Angeles Times, 2-22-04.
“I wanted to retell”: Bill Broadway, “Why Mailer Decided to Play Jesus,” Washington Post, 5-10-97.
“If suddenly I had”: Donn Fry, “Mailer’s Literary Touch Backed by Audacity,” Seattle Times.
“to write a book”: Andrew O’Hagan, “The Martyrdom of Mailer,” Guardian Weekend, 8-30-97, T10.
“I remember arguing”: JML interview with Jason Epstein, 6-25-03.
“almost animal-like”: Sean Abbott, “Mailer Goes to the Mountain,” At Random, 50.
He did some research: Ibid., 54; Bob Minzesheimer, “Mailer Retells the Greatest Story Ever,” USA Today, 4-24-97.
Elaine Pagels: The Gnostic Gospels (NY: Random House, 1979); The Origin of Satan (NY: Random House, 1995).
“Celebrities”: Transcript of Charlie Rose, 4-22-97.
two pieces on the political campaigns: “War of the Oxymorons,” George, November 1996, 6–24; “How the Pharaoh Beat Bogey,” George, January 1997, 54–60, 82–86.
article on Pat Buchanan: “Searching for Deliverance,” Esquire, August 1996, 54–61, 118–27.
Clinton aides wrote back: Bill Clinton to NM, 12-6-94.
“I think you owe it”: NM to Bill Clinton, 12-28-94.
“boutique politics”: “Searching for Deliverance,” Esquire, 54.
“the quiet tones”: Ibid., 55.
“I’ve been married”: Ibid.
“Seen up close”: “How the Pharaoh Beat Bogey,” George, 59.
“It’s the story”: JML interview with Michael Mailer, 11-1-03.
Filming was scheduled: Andrew Hindes and Chris Petrikin, “In This Corner, Mailer Helming ‘Ringside,’ ” Variety, 3-2-97.
“The only trouble”: NM to Bruce Dexter, 5-6-97.
“Boxing”: Ibid.
“Tough Guys Don’t Dance was”: JML interview with Michael Mailer, 11-1-03.
“Either they had found”: NM to Dexter, 5-6-97.
“To this day”: Michael Mailer interview.
When We Were Kings: Produced by Das Films/Sonenberg/Polygram, directed by Leon Gast.
“a sort of novelized”: Michiko Kakutani, “Norman Mailer’s Perception of Jesus,” NYT, 4-14-97, B7.
“an inestimable advantage”: Sean Abbott, “Mailer Goes to the Mountain,” At Random, 54.
“extremely Jewish”: Bill Broadway, “Norman Mailer: New Advertisements for Himself,” New Millennium Writings, 14.
“I began to realize”: Ibid.
“That conviction”: Sean Abbott, “Mailer Goes to the Mountain,” At Random, 54.
“God-given power”: Frank Kermode, “Advertisements for Himself,” NYRB, 5-15-97.
“Norman’s more”: Dinitia Smith, “Narrator of Mailer’s Next Novel: Jesus,” NYT, 4-4-97.
“not only His mental”: Reynolds Price, “Mailer, Mark, Luke and John,” NYTBR, 5-4-97, 9.
“the quiet ghostly voice”: John Updike, “Stones into Bread,” New Yorker, 5-12-97.
King James Bible: Maureen Conlan, “Mailer’s Jesus Is Remote, But Language Shines,” Cincinnati Post, 6-7-97.
his father-in-law told him: Ray Waddle, “Mailer Stresses Jesus as a Man in Rewrite of Gospels,” The Tennessean, 6-15-97, 1B, 2B.
“a spastic simulacrum”: James Wood, “He Is Finished,” New Republic, 5-12-97.
“If he’d just said”: Mick Brown, “ ‘He Smiled, So I Punched Him,’ ” Daily Telegraph, 9-25-97, 26.
“I guess it was”: “Norman Mailer’s Gut Reaction,” New York, 7-29-98.
“flabby”: Ibid.
promise to write a sequel: Bob Minzesheimer, “Mailer Retells the Greatest Story Ever Told,” USA Today.
anniversary edition: The Naked and the Dead, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, with a New Introduction by the Author (NY: Henry Holt, 1998).
“Suddenly a catastrophe”: NM to Bruce Dexter, 2-16-97.
“It’s a little like”: NM to Edward McAlice, 3-26-97.
“a commemorative work”: NM to Edith Atkin, 9-9-97.
“one extremely famous person”: “Meet the Author: Norman Mailer,” Random House publicity sheet, 9-97.
“Occasionally, since this had”: The Time of Our Time (NY: Random House, 1998), xi.
“equal to a row”: Ibid., vii.
“The Second World War”: Martin Arnold, “ ‘Private Ryan’ Revives a Genre,” NYT, 7-30-98, E3.
“There is little”: TOT, ix.
“the idea of certain”: Elizabeth Taylor, “Fine Distinctions,” Chicago Tribune, Books, 5-24-98, 3.
“quick observant eye”: Michiko Kakutani, “Self-Portrait of an Artist with Customary Élan,” NYT, 5-4-98.
“is above all”: Harold Bloom, “Norman Mailer’s Testament,” Washington Post Book World, 5-24-98, 1, 10.
“Mailer is looking well”: David Denby, “The Contender,” New Yorker, 4-20-98, 63–64.
“could match the book’s variety”: Ibid., 62.
“a clear spiritual autobiography”: Ibid., 64–65.
“The main good motive”: Sean Abbott, “Norman Mailer on Literary Instincts and Ambitions,” At Random, 4-27-98.
“Mailer’s imagination of history”: David Denby, “The Contender,” New Yorker, 64.
“two-hander”: James Campbell, “Seeking Susan,” NYTBR, 6-24-12, 15.
“a long, long night”: David Denby, “The Contender,” New Yorker, 64.
The endless critical discussion: See JML, “Norman Mailer: Novelist, Journalist, or Historian,” Journal of Modern Literature, Fall 2006, 91–103.
who wrote about the party: Lillian Ross, “Ink,” New Yorker, 5-18-98, 31.
“there will never be another”: George Rush and Joanna Molloy, “Mailer’s a Knockout,” New York Daily News, 5-8-98, 14.
a lot of reading: Rick Lyman, “After Half a Century, Still Writing, Still Questing,” NYT, 5-7-98, E1, E8.
Underworld: (NY: Scribner’s, 1997).
a lot of Jung: Rick Lyman, “After Half a Century, Still Writing, Still Questing,” NYT.
C. G. Jung: His Life and Work: (Boston: Shambhala, 1991); originally published in 1977, the Shambhala edition is in NM’s library.
“In winter, it’s wonderful:” Rick Lyman, “After Half a Century, Still Writing, Still Questing,” NYT.
“I’ve been waiting”: Ibid.
FIFTEEN: OLD FREIGHTER, UNCERTAIN SEA
In addition to the sources identified below, the following we
re drawn on: JML’s “Mailer Log”; JML’s unpublished interviews with NM and BW. NM’s letters are located at the HRC.
hearing aids: At the urging of Tom Luddy, who saw that Mailer could not hear what members of the film crew were saying, NM began wearing one during the 1987 filming of Tough Guys Don’t Dance.
“the illusion that you”: NM to Emmerich Kusztrich, 1-26-05.
“leaves me cheerful”: NM to Lois Wilson, 11-22-02.
“old guy with slits”: Hillel Italie, “The Greatest American Writer,” Chicago Tribune, 7-5-99, 3C.
more of a geezer: Tim Warren, “The Softer Norman Mailer,” Baltimore Sun, 9-29-91.
Several operations: TC, 350–54.
Windchill Summer: (NY: Random House, 2000).
“a story about boys”: TC, 55.
“I told her”: Carolyn T. Hughes, “Norman Mailer: A Literary Lion Roars,” Poets and Writers, March/April 2001, 45.
“No. You can’t edit”: TC, 345.
“Do we influence”: Marie-Louise von der Leyen, “Norman Mailer on Anger and Love,” in Lifelines.
“Fine”: TC, 345–46.
“I could have made it”: Carolyn Hughes, “Norman Mailer: A Literary Lion Roars,” Poets and Writers, 45.
Hooking Up: (NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2000).
“My Three Stooges”: Hooking Up, 145–71.
“the rich material”: Ibid., 156.
“weak, pale”: Ibid., 147.
“old lions”: Ibid., 156.
“old piles of bones”: Ibid., 152.
“shaken”: Ibid., 154.
The World According to Garp: (NY: Dutton, 1978).
Angstrom tetralogy: Published by Knopf in 1960, 1971, 1981, 1990, respectively.
“a remarkable Santa Claus”: Hooking Up, 156.
“can’t create a character”: Irving, quoted on a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation program hosted by Evan Solomon, Hot Type, 12-17-99.
“spreading like kudzu”: John Updike, “Awriiiighhhhhhhht!,” New Yorker, 11-9-98.
“to cook up”: “A Man Half Full,” TOT, 1292.
“certainly the most gifted”: Ibid., 1299.
“It’s true that I’m”: Ginny Dougary, “The Norman Conquests,” Sunday Independent, 6-25-00.
Explaining Hitler: (NY: Random House, 1998).
“Long after the details”: Ron Rosenbaum, “Oh, the Devil He Knows,” Moment, June 2007, 34.
“this little muse”: Ibid., 60.
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