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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781623730222 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Odyssey Editions |
| Publication date: | 10/15/2013 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 532 |
| File size: | 658 KB |
About the Author
Norman Mailer was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of 16, he matriculated at Harvard University to study aeronautical engineering. After graduation, he was drafted into the army and served as an artilleryman in the Philippines, an experience that inspired his debut novel The Naked and the Dead. A gritty, realistic portrayal of the agonies of combat, the book resonated deeply with Americans in the years following World War II, topping the New York Times Bestseller list for eleven consecutive weeks and making Mailer a national celebrity. Critics hailed him as one of the great rising American writers of the post-war era.
Throughout his career, Mailer contributed more than thirty works of fiction and nonfiction to the American literary canon. Considered the innovator of the nonfiction novel, he received several prizes for his books, including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for The Armies of the Night, the National Book Award for nonfiction for Miami and the Siege of Chicago, and a second Pulitzer for The Executioner’s Song. In 1955 he co-founded The Village Voice; 50 years later, he won the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation. Mailer died in 2007.
Hometown:
Provincetown, Massachusetts, and New York, New YorkDate of Birth:
January 31, 1923Date of Death:
November 10, 2007Place of Birth:
Long Branch, New JerseyEducation:
B.S., Harvard University, 1943; Sorbonne, Paris, 1947-48Table of Contents
A NOTE TO THE READER
There are two Tables of Contents. The First lists each piece in sequence, and anyone wishing to read my book from beginning to end may be pleased to hear that the order is roughly chronological. The author, taken with an admirable desire to please his readers, has also added a set of advertisements, printed in italics, which surround all of these writings with his present tastes, preferences, apologies, prides, and occasional confessions. Like many another literary fraud, the writer has been known on occasion to read the Preface of a book instead of a book, and bearing this vice in mind, he tried to make the advertisements more readable than the rest of his pages.
Since such a method is discursive, and this is a time in which many hold a fierce grip on their wandering attention, a Second Table of Contents is offered to satisfy the specialist. Here all short stories, short novels, poems, advertisements, articles, essays, journalism, and miscellany are posted in their formal category.
For those who care to skim nothing but the cream of each author, and so miss the pleasure of liking him at his worst, I will take the dangerous step of listing what I believe are the best pieces in this book.
In order of appearance they might be:
- The Man Who Studied Yoga
- The White Negro
- The Time Of Her Time
- Dead Ends
- Advertisements For Myself On The Way Out
- and some of the writing in italics.
"Advertisements For Myself On The Way Out" is the title to the Prologue of a long novel. Since one of the purposes of this collection is the intention to clear a ground for that novel, I have taken the opportunity to use a part of the title as a name for this book.
Acknowledgment is made to Cross-Section, Story magazine, The Harvard Advocate, New World Writing, New Short Novels, The Independent, One Magazine, The Village Voice, the N. Y. Post, Modern Writing, The Provincetown Annual, Discovery, Esquire, Partisan Review, Western Review and Dissent, where many of these pieces first appeared. Acknowledgment is also made to Time magazine and Newsweek for permission to quote from their reviews of The Deer Park.
The date which comes at the end of some of these writings refers to the year in which the piece was written. Where a date does not appear, the material is new and was written during 1958 and 1959 for this book.
FIRST TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Note to the Reader
FIRST TABLE OF CONTENTS
SECOND TABLE OF CONTENTS
First Advertisement for myself
Part 1—BEGINNINGS
Advertisement for "A Calculus At Heaven"
A CALCULUS AT HEAVEN
Advertisement for "The Greatest Thing in the World"
THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD
Advertisement for "Maybe Next Year"
MAYBE NEXT YEAR
Part 2—MIDDLES
Second Advertisement for myself
EXCERPTS FROM Barbary Shore
Third Advertisement for myself
Advertisement for Three War Stories
THE PAPER HOUSE
THE LANGUAGE OF MEN
THE DEAD GOOK
Advertisement for "The Notebook"
THE NOTEBOOK
Advertisement for "The Man Who Studied Yoga"
THE MAN WHO STUDIED YOGA
Advertisement for Three Political Pieces
OUR COUNTRY AND OUR CULTURE (Partisan Review Symposium)
DAVID RIESMAN RECONSIDERED
THE MEANING OF WESTERN DEFENSE
Postscript to "The Meaning of Western Defense"
Part 3—BIRTHS
Advertisement for Part Three
Advertisement for "The Homosexual Villain"
THE HOMOSEXUAL VILLAIN
Fourth Advertisement for myself: The Last Draft of The Deer Park
THREE EXCERPTS FROM RINEHART AND PUTNAM VERSIONS OF The Deer Park
Two REVIEWS: Time AND Newsweek
Postscript to the Fourth Advertisement for myself
Advertisement for Sixty-Nine Questions and Answers
SIXTY-NINE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Fifth Advertisement for myself: GENERAL MARIJUANA
The Village Voice: FIRST THREE COLUMNS
Postscript to the first three columns
The Village Voice: COLUMNS FOUR TO SEVENTEEN
Advertisement for the End of a Column and a Public Notice
A PUBLIC NOTICE ON Waiting for Godot
Postscript to a Public Notice
Part 4—HIPSTERS
Sixth Advertisement for myself
THE WHITE NEGRO
Note to "Reflections on Hip"
REFLECTIONS ON HIP
HIPSTER AND BEATNIK
Advertisement for "Hip, Hell and the Navigator"
HIP, HELL AND THE NAVIGATOR
Part 5—GAMES AND ENDS
Advertisement for "Games and Ends"
Advertisement for "It"
IT
Advertisement for "Great in the Hay"
GREAT IN THE HAY
Advertisement for "The Patron Saint of Macdougal Alley"
THE PATRON SAINT OF MACDOUGAL ALLEY
Advertisement for a letter to the New York Post
A LETTER TO THE NEW YORK POST
HOW TO COMMIT MURDER IN THE MASS-MEDIA—A
HOW TO COMMIT MURDER IN THE MASS MEDIA—B
Advertisement for Buddies
BUDDIES, OR THE HOLE IN THE SUMMIT
Postscript to Buddies
Advertisement for "Notes Toward a Psychology of the Orgy"
THE HIP AND THE SQUARE
1. The List
2. Catholic and Protestant
3. T-Formation and Single Wing
A NOTE ON COMPARATIVE PORNOGRAPHY
FROM SURPLUS VALUE TO THE MASS-MEDIA
SOURCES—A RIDDLE IN PSYCHICAL ECONOMY
LAMENT OF A LADY
I GOT TWO KIDS AND ANOTHER IN THE OVEN
Advertisement for The Deer Park as a play
THE DEER PARK (Scenes 2, 3, and 4)
AN EYE ON PICASSO
EVALUATIONS: QUICK AND EXPENSIVE COMMENTS ON THE TALENT IN THE ROOM
Last Advertisement for myself Before the Way Out
A Note for "The Time of Her Time"
THE TIME OF HER TIME
Advertisement for "Dead Ends"
DEAD ENDS (a long poem)
ADVERTISEMENTS FOR MYSELF ON THE WAY OUT
SECOND TABLE OF CONTENTS
FICTION
A Calculus at Heaven-short novel
The Greatest Thing in the World-story
Maybe Next Year-story
Barbary Shore-excerpts from the novel
The Paper House-story
The Language of Men-story
The Dead Gook—story
The Notebook-story
The Man Who Studied Yoga-short novel
The Deer Park-excerpts from the Rinehart and Putnam versions of the novel
It-story
Great in the Hay-story
The Patron Saint of Macdougal Alley-story
The Time of Her Time-section from a novel in progress
Advertisements for Myself on the Way Out—Prologue to a Novel in Progress
ESSAYS AND ARTICLES
Our Country and Our Culture—a contribution to a Partisan Review Symposium
David Riesman Reconsidered—criticism
The Meaning of Western Defense—political article
Postscript to "The Meaning of Western Defense"
The Homosexual Villain—article
A Public Notice on Waiting for Godot—criticism
The White Negro—essay
Reflections on Hip—polemics
Hipster and Beatnik—article
How to Commit Murder in the Mass-Media (A and B)—article
The Hip and the Square—notes for an essay
A Note on Comparative Pornography-article
From Surplus Value to the Mass-Media—political article
Sources—a riddle in psychical economy
An Eye on Picasso—critical note
Evaluations: Quick and Expensive Comments on the Talent in the Room—criticism
JOURNALISM
The Columns for The Village Voice
First three columns
Columns Four to Seventeen
A Letter to the N.Y. Post
INTERVIEWS
Sixty-Nine Questions and Answers
Hip, Hell, and the Navigator
POETRY
The Drunk's Bebop and Chowder
Lament of a Lady
I Got Two Kids and Another in the Oven
Dead Ends
PLAYS
Buddies, or The Hole in the Summit—a fragment
The Deer Park-Scenes 2, 3 & 4
BIOGRAPHY OF A STYLE
First Advertisement for myself
Advertisement for "A Calculus at Heaven"
Advertisement for "The Greatest Thing in the World"
Advertisement for "Maybe Next Year"
Second Advertisement for myself
Third Advertisement for myself
Advertisement for Three War Stories
Advertisement for "The Notebook"
Advertisement for "The Man Who Studied Yoga"
Advertisement for Three Political Pieces
Advertisement for Part Three
Advertisement for "The Homosexual Villain"
Fourth Advertisement for myself: The Last Draft of The Deer Park
Postscript to the Fourth Advertisement for myself
Advertisement for "Sixty-Nine Questions and Answers"
Fifth Advertisement for myself: General Marijuana
Postscript to the first three columns
Advertisement for the End of a Column and a Public Notice
Postscript to a Public Notice
Sixth Advertisement for myself
Note to "Reflections on Hip"
Advertisement for "Hip, Hell, and the Navigator"
Advertisement for "Games and Ends"
Advertisement for "It"
Advertisement for "Great in the Hay"
Advertisement for "The Patron Saint of Macdougal Alley"
Advertisement for a letter to the New York Post
Advertisement for "Buddies"
Postscript to "Buddies"
Advertisement for "Notes Toward a Psychology of the Orgy"
Advertisement for The Deer Park as a Play
Last Advertisement for myself Before the Way Out
A Note for "The Time of Her Time"
Advertisement for "Dead Ends"
What People are Saying About This
At the very time that he is perhaps too insistently trying to recall the audience and himself to the importance of the task of the novelist, he is creating another public persona, part clown, part vulgarian, fool and genius, whose arena is not the imagined story, but the imagined life, led first in the pages of newspapers or on television screens, and then (giving us the story behind the spectacle) turned into essays (or are they stories?) whose main character is this endlessly revised 'Norman Mailer'--a kind of expository confessional poetry.
Combining fictional fragments, autobiography, journalism, polemic...with a running commentary tracing the ups and downs of a novel-in-progress (Dos Passos for our times?) and asserting the author's place in the batting order of GREAT AMERICAN WRITERS, the book contains some of the best stuff Mailer ever produced.
— Karal Ann Marling, University of Minnesota
At the very time that he is perhaps too insistently trying to recall the audience and himself to the importance of the task of the novelist, he is creating another public persona, part clown, part vulgarian, fool and genius, whose arena is not the imagined story, but the imagined life, led first in the pages of newspapers or on television screens, and then (giving us the story behind the spectacle) turned into essays (or are they stories?) whose main character is this endlessly revised 'Norman Mailer'--a kind of expository confessional poetry.
— Jay Cantor, author of Krazy Kat