Apparently the self-imposed rock of ignorance that I’ve been living under this week worked, since I had no idea that Norman Mailer died last weekend. To be honest, I never read his work. All that I do know of the man I read in the memoirs of his ex-wife Adele Mailer. Her book painted quite the endearing picture of the man who stabbed, and almost killed her, making him seem almost to be a likeable guy underneath his physical and mental abuse, alcoholism, love of censorship, etc. etc. So, basically, despite her positive reflections, I don’t have too much nice to say about the guy.
I wonder how history would have treated Mailer if his wife hadn’t survived his physical abuse.
globeandmail.com: Norman Mailer, 84: "Norman Mailer, 84 Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner drank, fought, smoked pot, married six times and stabbed his second wife, almost fatally, during a drunken party
RICHARD PYLE Associated Press November 10, 2007 at 8:20 AM EST
NEW YORK — Norman Mailer, the macho prince of American letters who for decades reigned as the country's literary conscience and provocateur with such books as The Naked and the Dead, died early Saturday, his literary executor said. He was 84. Mailer died of acute renal failure at Mount Sinai Hospital, said J. Michael Lennon, who is also the author's official biographer. From his classic debut novel to such masterworks of literary journalism as The Armies of the Night, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner always got credit for insight, passion and originality. Some of his works were highly praised, some panned, but none was pronounced the Great American Novel that seemed to be his life quest from the time he soared to the top as a brash 25-year-old “enfant terrible.”"
Mailer built and nurtured an image over the years as pugnacious, streetwise and high-living. He drank, fought, smoked pot, married six times and stabbed his second wife, almost fatally, during a drunken party.
He had nine children, made a quixotic bid to become mayor of New York, produced five forgettable films, dabbled in journalism, flew gliders, challenged professional boxers, was banned from a Manhattan YWHA for reciting obscene poetry, feuded publicly with writer Gore Vidal and crusaded against women's lib.
But as Newsweek reviewer Raymond Sokolov said in 1968, “in the end it is the writing that will count.”
I wonder how history would have treated Mailer if his wife hadn’t survived his physical abuse.
globeandmail.com: Norman Mailer, 84: "Norman Mailer, 84 Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner drank, fought, smoked pot, married six times and stabbed his second wife, almost fatally, during a drunken party
RICHARD PYLE Associated Press November 10, 2007 at 8:20 AM EST
NEW YORK — Norman Mailer, the macho prince of American letters who for decades reigned as the country's literary conscience and provocateur with such books as The Naked and the Dead, died early Saturday, his literary executor said. He was 84. Mailer died of acute renal failure at Mount Sinai Hospital, said J. Michael Lennon, who is also the author's official biographer. From his classic debut novel to such masterworks of literary journalism as The Armies of the Night, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner always got credit for insight, passion and originality. Some of his works were highly praised, some panned, but none was pronounced the Great American Novel that seemed to be his life quest from the time he soared to the top as a brash 25-year-old “enfant terrible.”"
Mailer built and nurtured an image over the years as pugnacious, streetwise and high-living. He drank, fought, smoked pot, married six times and stabbed his second wife, almost fatally, during a drunken party.
He had nine children, made a quixotic bid to become mayor of New York, produced five forgettable films, dabbled in journalism, flew gliders, challenged professional boxers, was banned from a Manhattan YWHA for reciting obscene poetry, feuded publicly with writer Gore Vidal and crusaded against women's lib.
But as Newsweek reviewer Raymond Sokolov said in 1968, “in the end it is the writing that will count.”
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