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By
Norman Mailer and
J. Michael Lennon (editor)
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Bibliographic Detail
Publisher
Random House Inc
Publication date
December 2, 2014
Pages
867
Binding
Hardcover
Book category
Adult Non-Fiction
ISBN-13
9781400066230
ISBN-10
1400066239
Dimensions
2 by 6.50 by 9.50 in.
Weight
2.75 lbs.
Availability§
Publisher Out of Stock Indefinitely
Original list price
$40.00
Subjects
§As reported by publisher
Amazon.com says people who bought this book also bought:
An American Dream | Living on Paper | Norman Mailer | The Fight | The Castle in the Forest | Mind of an Outlaw | Norman Mailer | Mind of an Outlaw | Deadeye Dick
An American Dream | Living on Paper | Norman Mailer | The Fight | The Castle in the Forest | Mind of an Outlaw | Norman Mailer | Mind of an Outlaw | Deadeye Dick
Summaries and Reviews
Amazon.com description: Product Description: A genuine literary eventâan illuminating collection of correspondence from one of the most acclaimed American writers of all time
Â
Over the course of a nearly sixty-year career, Norman Mailer wrote more than 30 novels, essay collections, and nonfiction books. Yet nowhere was he more prolificâor more exposedâthan in his letters. All told, Mailer crafted more than 45,000 pieces of correspondence (approximately 20 million words), many of them deeply personal, keeping a copy of almost every one. Now the best of these are publishedâmost for the first timeâin one remarkable volume that spans seven decades and, it seems, several lifetimes. Together they form a stunning autobiographical portrait of one of the most original, provocative, and outspoken public intellectuals of the twentieth century.
Â
Compiled by Mailerâs authorized biographer, J. Michael Lennon, and organized by decade, Selected Letters of Norman Mailer features the most fascinating of Mailerâs missives from 1940 to 2007âletters to his family and friends, to fans and fellow writers (including Truman Capote, James Baldwin, and Philip Roth), to political figures from Henry Kissinger to Bill and Hillary Clinton, and to such cultural icons as John Lennon, Marlon Brando, and even Monica Lewinsky.
Â
Here is Mailer the precocious Harvard undergraduate, writing home to his parents for the first time and worrying that his acceptances by literary magazines were âall happening too easy.â Here, too, is Mailer the soldier, confronting the violence of war in the Pacific, which would become the subject of his masterly debut novel, The Naked and the Dead: â[Iâm] amazed how casually it fits into . . . daily life, how very unhorrible it all is.â Mailer the international celebrity pledges to William Styron, âIâm going to write every day, and like Lotâs Wife Iâm consigning myself to a pillar of salt if I dare to look back,â while the 1980s Mailer agonizes over the fallout from his ill-fated friendship with Jack Henry Abbott, the murderer who became his literary protégé. (âThe continuation of our relationship was depressing for both of us,â he confesses to Joyce Carol Oates.) At last, he finds domesticâand eroticâbliss in the arms of his sixth wife, Norris Church (âWe bounce into each other like sunlightâ).
Â
Whether he is reflecting on the Kennedy assassination, assessing the merits of authors from Fitzgerald to Proust, or threatening to pummel William Styron, the brilliant, pugnacious Norman Mailer comes alive again in these letters. The myriad faces of this artist and activist, lover and fighter, public figure and private man, are laid bare in this collection as never before.
Praise for Selected Letters of Norman Mailer
Â
âExtraordinary.ââVanity Fair
âAs massive as the life they document . . . the autobiography [Mailer] never wrote . . . a kind of map, from the hills and rice paddies of the Philippines through every victory and defeat for the rest of the century and beyond.ââEsquire
âThe shards and winks at Mailerâs own past that are scattered throughout the letters . . . are so tantalizing. They glitter throughout like unrefined jewels that Mailer took to the grave.ââThe New Yorker
Â
âIndispensable . . . a subtle document of an unsubtle manâs wit and erudition, even (or especially) when itâs wielded as a weapon.ââNew York
Â
âUmpteen pleasures to pluck out and roll between your teeth, like seeds from a pomegranate.ââThe New York Times
Â
Over the course of a nearly sixty-year career, Norman Mailer wrote more than 30 novels, essay collections, and nonfiction books. Yet nowhere was he more prolificâor more exposedâthan in his letters. All told, Mailer crafted more than 45,000 pieces of correspondence (approximately 20 million words), many of them deeply personal, keeping a copy of almost every one. Now the best of these are publishedâmost for the first timeâin one remarkable volume that spans seven decades and, it seems, several lifetimes. Together they form a stunning autobiographical portrait of one of the most original, provocative, and outspoken public intellectuals of the twentieth century.
Â
Compiled by Mailerâs authorized biographer, J. Michael Lennon, and organized by decade, Selected Letters of Norman Mailer features the most fascinating of Mailerâs missives from 1940 to 2007âletters to his family and friends, to fans and fellow writers (including Truman Capote, James Baldwin, and Philip Roth), to political figures from Henry Kissinger to Bill and Hillary Clinton, and to such cultural icons as John Lennon, Marlon Brando, and even Monica Lewinsky.
Â
Here is Mailer the precocious Harvard undergraduate, writing home to his parents for the first time and worrying that his acceptances by literary magazines were âall happening too easy.â Here, too, is Mailer the soldier, confronting the violence of war in the Pacific, which would become the subject of his masterly debut novel, The Naked and the Dead: â[Iâm] amazed how casually it fits into . . . daily life, how very unhorrible it all is.â Mailer the international celebrity pledges to William Styron, âIâm going to write every day, and like Lotâs Wife Iâm consigning myself to a pillar of salt if I dare to look back,â while the 1980s Mailer agonizes over the fallout from his ill-fated friendship with Jack Henry Abbott, the murderer who became his literary protégé. (âThe continuation of our relationship was depressing for both of us,â he confesses to Joyce Carol Oates.) At last, he finds domesticâand eroticâbliss in the arms of his sixth wife, Norris Church (âWe bounce into each other like sunlightâ).
Â
Whether he is reflecting on the Kennedy assassination, assessing the merits of authors from Fitzgerald to Proust, or threatening to pummel William Styron, the brilliant, pugnacious Norman Mailer comes alive again in these letters. The myriad faces of this artist and activist, lover and fighter, public figure and private man, are laid bare in this collection as never before.
Praise for Selected Letters of Norman Mailer
Â
âExtraordinary.ââVanity Fair
âAs massive as the life they document . . . the autobiography [Mailer] never wrote . . . a kind of map, from the hills and rice paddies of the Philippines through every victory and defeat for the rest of the century and beyond.ââEsquire
âThe shards and winks at Mailerâs own past that are scattered throughout the letters . . . are so tantalizing. They glitter throughout like unrefined jewels that Mailer took to the grave.ââThe New Yorker
Â
âIndispensable . . . a subtle document of an unsubtle manâs wit and erudition, even (or especially) when itâs wielded as a weapon.ââNew York
Â
âUmpteen pleasures to pluck out and roll between your teeth, like seeds from a pomegranate.ââThe New York Times
Editions
Hardcover
The price comparison is for this edition
With Norman Mailer |
from Random House Inc (December 2, 2014); titled "Selected Letters of Norman Mailer"
9781400066230 | details & prices | 867 pages | 6.50 × 9.50 × 2.00 in. | 2.75 lbs | List price $40.00
About: A genuine literary eventâan illuminating collection of correspondence from one of the most acclaimed American writers of all time  Over the course of a nearly sixty-year career, Norman Mailer wrote more than 30 novels, essay collections, and nonfiction books.
About: A genuine literary eventâan illuminating collection of correspondence from one of the most acclaimed American writers of all time  Over the course of a nearly sixty-year career, Norman Mailer wrote more than 30 novels, essay collections, and nonfiction books.
Paperback
With Norman Mailer |
from Random House Inc (June 9, 2015); titled "Selected Letters of Norman Mailer"
9780812986105 | details & prices | 867 pages | 6.00 × 9.25 × 1.45 in. | 1.90 lbs | List price $20.00
About: A genuine literary eventâan illuminating collection of correspondence from one of the most acclaimed American writers of all time  Over the course of a nearly sixty-year career, Norman Mailer wrote more than 30 novels, essay collections, and nonfiction books.
About: A genuine literary eventâan illuminating collection of correspondence from one of the most acclaimed American writers of all time  Over the course of a nearly sixty-year career, Norman Mailer wrote more than 30 novels, essay collections, and nonfiction books.
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