“Any contest between me”: Barry Farrell, “Merchandising Gary Gilmore’s Dance of Death,” How I Got to Be This Hip, 117.
“I’m suited up”: Jeffrey Severs, “The Untold Story,” MR, 90.
$40,000: Grace Lichtenstein.
“He wanted to do”: David Thompson, “Mailer by the Bay,” California, August 1987, 68.
“one of the great wheeler-dealers”: NM to Bonnie B., 3-28-99. NM also called Schiller “you falloozeling genius.”
Gordon Lish: Mailer had a warm relationship with Lish (b. 1934), aka Captain Fiction, who was known for his valiant efforts on behalf of emerging writers such as Raymond Carver and Amy Hempel.
“Of a Small and Modest Malignancy”: Esquire, November 1977; rpt., PAP, 13–81.
Mailer-Vidal fight at Lally Weymouth’s: Drawn from the following: Liz Smith, “There’s Always a Morning After,” New York Daily News, 10-27-77; Liz Smith, “Vidal Plus Mailer: Pow,” Chicago Tribune, 10-30-77; “Still Feuding After All These Years, Gore and Norman Stage Fight Night at Lally’s,” People, 11-14-77, 42–43; Nancy Collins, “ ‘The Fight,’ Starring Mailer and Vidal,” Washington Post, 10-28-77; “Newsmakers,” Newsweek, 11-7-77, 67, 69; MBM, 418–19; MLT, 604–5; Kaplan, Vidal: A Biography, 708–11.
Norris stood up: MBM, 419.
“Nothing mattered”: NM to Lish, 11-15-77.
“horrified and helpless”: TC, 239.
1993 collection: United States: Essays, 1952–1992.
weighing titles: ES files (HRC).
“a kind of litmus test”: Jan Herman, “Raising the Ante as He Appraises His Holdings,” Providence Journal, 10-29-80, H16.
“With all the excitement”: ES, 10.
“a gentle voice”: Joseph McElroy, “A Little on Novel-Writing,” Columbia: A Magazine of Poetry and Prose, 6 (1981); rpt., PAP, 172.
“a middle-aged movie-writer”: William F. Buckley and Jeff Greenfield, “Crime and Punishment: Gary Gilmore,” transcript of Firing Line, 10-11-79; rpt., CNM, 251.
“Put everything in”: ES files (HRC).
“baroque”: Jan Herman, “Raising the Ante as He Appraises His Holdings,” Providence Sunday Journal Arts and Travel, H16.
“so difficult”: Hilary Mills, “Creators on Creating: Norman Mailer,” Saturday Review, January 1981, 53.
“it’s not easy”: Herman.
“the shifting point of view”: Ted Morgan, “Last Rights,” Saturday Review, 11-10-79, 57–58.
“violated the fundamental integrity”: McElroy, PAP, 177–78.
“The deity”: Ted Morgan, “Last Rights,” Saturday Review, 57.
“so pronounced”: Richard G. Stern, “Where Is That Self-Mocking Literary Imp?,” Chicago, January 1980, 108.
“narrative technique of real genius”: Frank McConnell, review of ES, Saturday Review, 10-27-79, 30.
1944 novel: A Transit to Narcissus was published on March 29.
“the folk hero”: William Hamilton, “Mom Mailer’s Advice, and Other Things,” Boston Globe, 6-8-78.
“and Norman plans”: Judy Klemesrud, “Party Hails Publication of Jones’s Last Novel,” NYT, 2-23-78, C15.
“He turned to me”: Kaylie Jones, Lies My Mother Never Told Me (NY: Morrow, 2009), 229–30.
repeated to others: In a conversation with JML, 5-26-95.
Quite the Other Way: NM gave a blurb to the 1989 Fawcett edition of Kaylie Jones’s novel.
“the wisdom of an elegant redneck”: NM, James Jones Literary Society Newsletter, Spring 1999.
“the psychology of violence”: NM to Abbott, 2-23-78.
“was intense, direct, unadorned”: NM, introduction to Jack Henry Abbott, In the Belly of the Beast: Letters from Prison (NY: Random House, 1981), x–xi.
“So he has a mind”: Ibid., xv.
“as well as I know”: Publishers Weekly, 1-8-79, 9.
“We’re calling him John”: NM to Abbott, 5-10-78.
“as many characters”: NM to Louis and Moos Mailer, 5-17-78.
“a hazard”: McElroy, 175.
work double shifts: NM to John Wisner, 5-10-78.
“not unlike ‘In Cold Blood’ ”: NM to Morton Yanow, 5-10-78.
doing portraits: MBD, 345.
“truly a menagerie”: NM to Louis and Moos, 5-17-78.
“he dictated”: LNM, 288.
“in the voice”: Ibid.
“The manuscript will probably”: NM to Yanow, 7-17-78.
“entirely of my own”: NM to Abbott, 8-5-78.
jogged three times: NM to Peter Arthurs, 5-17-78.
“I work six or seven”: NM to Mary Breasted, 7-17-78.
delivered a rough draft: NM to Brenda Nicol, 12-13-78.
see Beverly perform: MBD, 345; TC, 148.
“Beverly totally flipped out”: Ibid., 230–31.
a good father: Martha Smilgis, “Once Norman’s Conquest, the Fourth Mrs. Mailer Fights Her Final Marital Battle,” People, 2-26-79, 24–26.
$1,000 a week: Tom Sullivan and Harold Banks, “Mailer Story Has It All: Love, Hate, Sex, Drama,” Boston Herald American, 11-30-78.
“Listen”: Smilgis.
total of $400,000: Robert Garrett, “Mailer’s P-Town Pad Put on Block Too,” Boston Globe, 4-1-79.
“my fifth wife”: Peggy Eastman, “Mailer Pays $1,000 to Former Mistresses, Testimony Reveals,” Cape Cod Times, 1-24-79, 3.
“His affairs are a holy”: Sullivan and Banks, “Mailer’s Real-Life Escapades Outdo Fiction,” Boston Herald American, 12-10-78, A3.
“My talent”: “People-Talk: That’s How His Money Goes,” Providence Bulletin, 1-26-79, C43.
Unpleasant details: Sullivan and Banks, 11-30-78.
“In fact”: Ibid.
lump sum of $7,500: Tom Sullivan, “Mailer: Unjust Law Delays His 5th Marriage,” Boston Herald American, 5-21-80.
sold by the IRS: UPI, “IRS Takes Over Mailer’s House,” Chicago Tribune, 4-29-79.
Beverly was evicted: Edward Quill, “Mailer’s Former Wife Evicted from Provincetown Home,” Boston Globe, 10-1-81, 27.
contest the divorce: Tom Sullivan, “Mailer: Unjust Law Delays His Fifth Marriage,” Boston Herald American, 5-21-80.
free to marry: “Appealing Wife Clouds Mailer’s Weddings,” Boston Herald American, 11-2-80.
“brave face”: TC, 251–53.
“with great theatrical diction”: Jeffrey Michelson and Laura Bradley, Laura Meets Jeffrey: Both Sides of an Erotic Memoir (Lehigh Valley, PA: New Blue Books, 2012), 97.
“I was no longer”: TC, 256.
“And I call it trigamy”: UPI, “Norman Mailer Weds Twice, Divorces Twice,” Fall River Herald News, 12-?-80.
Supreme Judicial Court: Harold Banks, “Novelist Rewrites State’s Divorce Laws,” Boston Herald American, 9-1-82.
“Mailer’s Ring Cycle”: NYT, 10-19-80.
“Norman Mailer won’t get”: “Marriage a La Mode,” Boston Herald American, 12-18-80.
“Friends, Penpals”: NM to many correspondents, 4-79.
“to explore the states”: NM to Mort Yanow, 4-9-79.
“a con who’s counting”: NM to Luke Breit, 4-10-79.
greased peanuts: NM to Louis and Moos, 4-20-79.
“my best friend”: Marcus Warren, “Another Rogue Mailer,” http://cannabisnews.com/news/17/thread17904.shtml.
“a profoundly religious”: NM to Abbott, 4-18-79; rpt., NYRB, 3-12-09, 26–27.
“no automatic Zionist hardon”: NM to Abbott, 4-18-79.
“the Jewish past”: Saul Bellow, “A Jewish Writer in America—II,” NYRB, 11-10-79, 28–29.
History of the Jews: NM to Abbott, 4-26-84.
John Taylor “Ike” Williams: A leading publishing lawyer and literary agent who represents Schiller, JML, and the estate of NCM, among others, Williams (b. 1938) is a longtime friend of and advisor to the Mailer family.
punched him: NM did not remember Williams, but he remembered the punch.
“So, here is this heavy guy”: JML interview with
John T. Williams, 10-23-11.
Bradford died: NM thanked his editor of ten years in the afterword to ES, calling him “that good, fine, and devoted man of literature.”
Roger Donald: NM’s editor at Little, Brown until 1984.
Serpentine: (NY: Doubleday, 1979).
The Right Stuff: (NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1979).
“I’m sitting with Norman”: Severs.
Gödel, Escher, Bach: (NY: Basic Books, 1979).
The Ghost Writer: (NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1979).
Birdy: (NY: Knopf, 1979).
“a factual account”: ES, 1051–52.
complain that words: Phillip K. Tomkins (“In Cold Fact,” Esquire, June 1966, 166–71) presents the testimony of several people who say Capote misquoted them or invented things they said, including Detective Alvin Dewey, who apprehended Hickock and Smith, and Josephine Meier, the wife of Undersheriff Wendle Meier, who fed Smith his meals.
“nonfiction provides answers”: Tony Schwartz, “Is New Mailer Book Fiction, in Fact?,” NYT, 10-26-79, C24.
“to read like a novel”: Kevin Bezner, “Mailer on Gilmore,” Washington Book Review, 6.
Capote recalled: Lawrence Grobel, Conversations with Capote (NY: New American Library, 1985), 112–14.
“although he has always”: Music for Chameleons (NY: Random House, 1980), xvi.
“was so famous”: Grobel, Conversations with Capote, 113–14.
“no respect”: Grobel, Ibid., 112.
“That was the measure”: Plimpton, Truman Capote, 153–54.
“I think he was terribly”: Radio interview with Milt Rosenberg, Extension 720, WGN, 9-6-84.
nod to Capote: NM did note his debt to Capote in several interviews, with Milt Rosenberg, and with William Buckley and Jeff Greenfield on Firing Line, for example.
acknowledged Lillian Ross’s: Capote in Grobel, Conversations with Capote, 114; Mailer in Plimpton, Truman Capote, 214.
Ross’s nonfiction narrative: Picture (NY: Rinehart, 1952).
“Nothing in my experience”: ES, 305.
Romeo and Juliet: See, for example, http://www.crimenarrative.com/2010.02/book-review-executioners-song-by-norman.html.
“Real life”: Ivy Compton-Burnett, “A Conversation Between I. Compton-Burnett and M. Jourdain,” Rosamund Lehmann et al. (eds.), Orion 2: A Miscellany (London: Nicholson & Watson, 1945), 2.
“trying to put people”: Aldridge, CNM, 267.
“I have a problem”: Jeffrey Severs, “The Untold Story,” MR, 105.
could have cut out: NM said as much to Paul A. Attanasio, “Talking with Mailer,” Harvard Crimson Fall Book Supplement, October 1979, 23.
“By that time”: ES, 503.
“might be the only”: ES, 639.
“had to obtain this story”: ES, 619.
three hundred people have speaking parts: A careful count reveals that ES has 317 characters mentioned by name who are significantly involved with one of the principals—Gilmore, Nicole, and Schiller. Part I presents 148; Part II introduces 169 new characters. Of the total of 317, 140 have speaking parts, that is, their words are in quotation marks in the main narrative, not counting the fifty-one media reports, fifty-eight Gilmore letters, and sixty-five other documents (court and psychiatric reports, for example), that are quoted from or interpolated entirely.
interviews with George Plimpton: Plimpton’s interviews and several others are collected in Irving Malin’s Capote’s In Cold Blood: A Critical Handbook (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1968).
“Do you really want”: Philippa Toomey, “Mailer and a Monument to Death,” The Times (London), 11-17-79, 14.
“Schiller stood”: ES, 1053.
“I will never”: Jeffrey Severs, “The Untold Story,” MR, 106.
embarked on a publicity tour: See JML and Donna Pedro Lennon, Norman Mailer, 114–18.
Buckley’s Firing Line: 11-11-79.
interview with Dick Cavett: Broadcast on November 21 and 22, 1979.
appeared in England: On 11-5-79 by Hutchinson.
“true life novel”: Adrienne Blue, “Death, Taxes and Norman Mailer,” Time Out (London), 12-7-79, 14–16.
“a defile”: Paul A. Attanasio, 23.
“made eloquent”: James Atlas, “Life with Mailer,” NYTM, 53–55.
“garrulous, vain, paranoid”: Ibid., 96.
“merely pretended”: “ ‘Times’ Irks Mailer, Atlas Shrugs,” New York, 9-24-79, 8.
when a friend showed him a copy: JML, 7-22-05.
“not true”: NCM to JML, 7-22-05.
Of Women and Their Elegance: (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1980; London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1980).
“fantasy autobiography”: “Norman Mailer Writes a New ‘Fantasy Autobiography’ of Marilyn Monroe,” advance excerpt in Ladies’ Home Journal, September 1980, 93–95, 154–64.
Strawhead: Unpublished (HRC), except for “Strawhead: An Extract from Act One,” Vanity Fair, April 1986, 63–66.
I wanted to write: Beverly Beyette, “Mailer on Mailer,” Pantagraph News (Illinois), 12-14-80, C1.
“a nice feeling”: NM to Susan Mailer, 8-25-79.
“your good character”: NM to Abbott, 6-3-79.
faux obituary: “Novelist Shelved,” Boston, September 1979, 91.
“used up my audience”: Aldridge, CNM, 266.
Martha Thomases: Legs McNeil, “Norman Mailer: The Champ of American Letters,” High Times, September 1979, 43.
“Let’s do it”: MBD, 352.
“I’m sure you’ve never”: Legs McNeil, “Norman Mailer,” High Times, 44.
young boxers: MBD, 353.
“I haven’t got”: MBD, 353.
“schizophrenia of the cells”: Legs McNeil, “Norman Mailer,” High Times, 43–44.
“Damn good song”: “Random Notes,” Rolling Stone, 4-17-80, 34.
“Norman, we don’t”: Ibid.
negative reviews: Diane Johnson, “Death for Sale,” NYRB, 12-6-79, 3–6; Germaine Greer, “The Book Page,” Hollywood Reporter, 12-7-79, 38.
“an emotional boost”: TC, 249.
most often taught: A surmise based on observation, and the fact that in 1999, thirty-six judges working under the aegis of New York University’s Journalism Department ranked ES number seventy-two on a list of the top one hundred works of journalism of the twentieth century. See Felicity Barringer, “Journalism’s Greatest Hits: Two Lists of a Century’s Top Stories,” NYT, 3-1-99.
“When Mailer has Schiller”: John Garvey, “Of Several Minds,” Commonweal, 3-14-80, 134–35.
“is offered a large sum”: John Cheever, “A ‘True Life Novel’ of a Murderer Transfigured by Death,” Chicago Tribune, 10-7-79.
“a stunningly candid”: Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, “Existential Gunslinger,” NYT, 9-24-79.
“Men tend to shoot”: Joan Didion, “I Want to Go Ahead and Do It,” NYTBR, 10-7-79, 1, 26–27; rpt., JML, Critical Essays on Norman Mailer, 80–81.
“This is an absolutely”: Ibid., 82.
“Yes, she’s absolutely right”: Kevin Bezner, “Mailer on Gilmore,” Washington Post Book World, 5–6.
“What I found”: Christopher Bollen, “Norman Mailer Writer,” V magazine, 7.
“Be careful, he stabbed”: JML questions for Eileen Fredrickson, 12-22-11, conducted by Peter Lennon.
Pieces and Pontifications: (Boston: Little, Brown, 1982). JML edited the second half of this collection, containing twenty interviews, mainly from the 1970s and early 1980s. Each half is numbered from page one on; Pieces contains twelve essays, all from the 1970s.
“Over breakfast, he talked”: Peter Lennon to Robert F. Lucid, 7-28-86.
“until you make”: NM to Abbott, 11-5-79.
“The Death of Tragedy”: Contained in a collection Abbott assembled with Naomi Zack, My Return (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 1987).
“fascinating”: NM to Abbott, 11-26-79.
“receive $30,000 a month”: MBM, 432.
“I leave it”: Hilary Mills, “Cre
ators on Creating,” Saturday Review, 52.
eight hundred pages: NM to Diana Trilling, 1-28-80.
“psychological substrata”: NM to Abbott, 4-11-80.
Mailer had told Robert Silvers: JML interview with Robert Silvers, 4-15-09.
letters were published: “In Prison,” NYRB, 6-26-80, 34–37.
“By temperament”: NM to Larry L. King, 10-25-80.
“By the time”: NM and John Buffalo Mailer, The Big Empty: Dialogues on Politics, Sex, God, Boxing, Morality, Myth, Poker and Bad Conscience in America (NY: Nation Books, 2006), 173.
The Main Event: Produced by First Artists/ Barwood Films; directed by Howard Zieff, 1979.
“He was very good”: JML interview with Michael Mailer, 12-28-11.
“to get extended”: “The Best Move Lies Close to the Worst,” Esquire, October 1993; rpt., TOT, 1049–50.
“It was as close”: Ibid., 1051.
“discipline and intelligence and restraint”: BE, 185.
“Boxing and writing”: Deborah Solomon, “A Sinner’s Tale: Questions for Ian McEwan,” NYT, 12-2-07.
“boxing has objective correlatives”: Jessica Blue and Legs McNeil, “The Maler Side of Mailer,” Details (1984), 87.
“boxing was the opposite”: Ibid., 85.
“huge similarity”: BE, 89.
“Great boxers and writers”: Herbert Mitgang, “Mailer Takes on the Heavyweight Novel,” NYT, C24.
“It’s an unnatural”: Leeds, CNM, 375–76.
“two systems of anxiety”: “The Best Move Lies Close to the Worst,” TOT, 1050.
“I don’t remember”: JML interview with Jeffrey Michelson, 12-13-11.
“The killing of John Lennon”: Joan Juliet Buck, “Ragtime: Dreaming America,” Vogue, November 1981, 492.
Robert Rowbotham: Transcript of NM’s testimony, “On Weed and Karma,” Stone Age 1, Winter 1978, 28–29.
“They both had an aura”: Joan Juliet Buck, “Ragtime,” Vogue, 492.
“Besides, I thought”: William Borders, “Mailer, Dying for a Part in ‘Ragtime,’ ” NYT, 12-17-80, C25.
“I thought it must”: Roderick Mann, “Mailer Writes Off Acting . . . Too Hard,” Los Angeles Times, 12-?-81.
“The ceiling”: JML interview with Jeffrey Michelson, 7-24-11.
“stepping in shit”: JML interview with Walter Anderson, 4-20-11.
in royal purple ink: “Until Dead: Thoughts on Capital Punishment,” Parade, 2-8-81, 8–9.
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