J. Michael Lennon collection of Norman Mailer manuscripts, 1968-2013
Series
Identifier: 50.05.004
Dates
- 1968-2013
Biographical / Historical
Biographical Sketch: Norman Mailer was born on January 31 1923 in Long Branch, New Jersey to Jewish immigrant parents, Isaac Barnett Mailer (who emigrated from South Africa via London after World War I), and Fanny (Schneider) Mailer. During his youth, Mailer lived with his family in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Harvard University in 1943 with an S.B. degree in engineering sciences. In 1944, he was drafted into the Army and served in the 112th Cavalry Regiment in the Philippines. After the Japanese surrender, he served as a cook in occupied Japan until his discharge in May 1946. His army experiences inspired him to write his 1948 novel, The Naked and the Dead, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the Gutenberg Award. In the early 1950s he began writing for magazines such as Dissent, Esquire, and Partisan Review, as well as publishing other novels, Barbary Shore (1951), and The Deer Park (1955). In 1955, he co-founded and named The Village Voice. In these and other periodicals, Mailer wrote about politics, race, feminism, sex, literature, art, culture, and society.
In the 1960s, he continued to publish and build his literary reputation with a book of poetry, Death for the Ladies (and Other Disasters) (1962), the novel An American Dream (1965), but was best known as one of the creators of the “New Journalism.” His essays on American society and politics appeared in The Presidential Papers (1963), Cannibals and Christians (1966), The Armies of the Night (1968, which won a Pulitzer and the National Book Award, Miami and the Siege of Chicago (1968), Of a Fire on the Moon (1971), The Prisoner of Sex (1971), St. George and the Godfather (1972), and The Fight (1975). These books explore politics, space exploration, feminism, and race relations.
In the late 1960s, he made three experimental films, Wild 90, Beyond the Law, and Maidstone. In 1969, Mailer made an unsuccessful Democratic primary bid for New York mayor. He served as President of the American Center for P.E.N. for two years, and in 1982, wrote the television adaptation for his novel, The Executioner’s Song, which depicts the events related to the execution in Utah of Gary Gilmore for murder. He later wrote and directed a major studio production of his 1984 novel, Tough Guys Don’t Dance.
Norman Mailer continued to publish novels in the 1980s through 2000s. including Ancient Evenings (1983), Tough Guys Don’t Dance (1984), Harlot’s Ghost (1991), and The Castle in the Forest (2007). He died in New York on November 10, 2007.
For more detailed information on his personal life, biography, and works, please consult the following resources: References/Further Resources:
Project Mailer: The Digital Humanities Initiative of the Norman Mailer Society
Lennon, J. Michael (2013). Norman Mailer: A Double Life. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 1439150214. Mailer, Norman (1959). Advertisements for Myself. Cambridge: Harvard UP. ISBN 9780674005907. Marcus, Steven (1988) [1964]. "Norman Mailer: An Interview". In Lennon, J. Michael. Conversations with Norman Mailer. Jackson and London: U of Mississippi Press.
The Norman Mailer Center and the Norman Mailer Writer’s Colony, “Norman Mailer, 1923-2007 Biographical Sketch,” The Norman Mailer Center, 2019. Accessed on 08/12/2019: https://nmcenter.org/long-version/
In the 1960s, he continued to publish and build his literary reputation with a book of poetry, Death for the Ladies (and Other Disasters) (1962), the novel An American Dream (1965), but was best known as one of the creators of the “New Journalism.” His essays on American society and politics appeared in The Presidential Papers (1963), Cannibals and Christians (1966), The Armies of the Night (1968, which won a Pulitzer and the National Book Award, Miami and the Siege of Chicago (1968), Of a Fire on the Moon (1971), The Prisoner of Sex (1971), St. George and the Godfather (1972), and The Fight (1975). These books explore politics, space exploration, feminism, and race relations.
In the late 1960s, he made three experimental films, Wild 90, Beyond the Law, and Maidstone. In 1969, Mailer made an unsuccessful Democratic primary bid for New York mayor. He served as President of the American Center for P.E.N. for two years, and in 1982, wrote the television adaptation for his novel, The Executioner’s Song, which depicts the events related to the execution in Utah of Gary Gilmore for murder. He later wrote and directed a major studio production of his 1984 novel, Tough Guys Don’t Dance.
Norman Mailer continued to publish novels in the 1980s through 2000s. including Ancient Evenings (1983), Tough Guys Don’t Dance (1984), Harlot’s Ghost (1991), and The Castle in the Forest (2007). He died in New York on November 10, 2007.
For more detailed information on his personal life, biography, and works, please consult the following resources: References/Further Resources:
Project Mailer: The Digital Humanities Initiative of the Norman Mailer Society
Lennon, J. Michael (2013). Norman Mailer: A Double Life. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 1439150214. Mailer, Norman (1959). Advertisements for Myself. Cambridge: Harvard UP. ISBN 9780674005907. Marcus, Steven (1988) [1964]. "Norman Mailer: An Interview". In Lennon, J. Michael. Conversations with Norman Mailer. Jackson and London: U of Mississippi Press.
The Norman Mailer Center and the Norman Mailer Writer’s Colony, “Norman Mailer, 1923-2007 Biographical Sketch,” The Norman Mailer Center, 2019. Accessed on 08/12/2019: https://nmcenter.org/long-version/
Extent
10 Cubic Feet
21.2 Linear Feet (35 document boxes, 1 legal box, 2 oversized unframed photographs, 1 oversized framed photograph in the Norman Mailer study, and 1 framed photograph located in the Norman Mailer Room. )
Language of Materials
English
Other Finding Aids
Norman Mailer Research at Other Institutions:
Duke University, Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library. William Styron Papers.
The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Special Collections. Francis Irby Gwaltney Papers.
University of Austin-Texas, The Ransom Center. The bulk of Mailer’s papers were sold to the University by him in 2005. http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/fa/:
The University of California, Berkeley, Bancroft Library. Norman Mailer Papers, 1957-1972.
Yale University, Beinecke Library. Final typescript of The Naked and the Dead.
Custodial History
Provenance: John Michael Lennon been an active Mailer scholar-critic since the late 1960s and wrote his doctoral dissertation (University of Rhode Island, 1975) on Mailer’s works. From the late 1970s, Lennon was involved with organizing Mailer’s papers. From 1994, he became his chief archivist, responsible for receiving and organizing 500 cubic feet of his papers for sale to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas-Austin. He served as a consultant to the staff there when the papers were processed. He met Mailer in 1972, and after editing one of his books, Pieces and Pontifications, in 1982, became a close associate and family friend. From 1997 to Mailer’s death in 2007, Lennon and his wife lived in Provincetown, Mailer’s final residence, and met regularly with Mailer. With Lawrence Schiller and Mailer’s widow, Norris Church Mailer, Lennon produced the Mailer Memorial at Carnegie Hall in April 2008. He has appraised more than a dozen collections of papers from Mailer’s family and friends.
He is the author of a score of jury-journal articles on Mailer’s work, as well as the standard bibliography (co-authored with Donna Pedro Lennon, edited by G.R. Lucas), Norman Mailer: Works and Days (Mailer Society, 2018) ); editor of Conversations with Norman Mailer (University Press of Mississippi, 1988); Critical Essays on Norman Mailer (G. K. Hall, 1986); Mailer’s A Spooky Art: Some Thoughts on Writing (Random House, 2003); co-author with Mailer of On God: An Uncommon Conversation (Random House, 2007). In 2013, Simon & Schuster published his authorized biography, Norman Mailer: A Double Life. In 2014, Random House published his Selected Letters of Norman Mailer, containing 714 of Mailer’s 45,000 letters. He also recently edited three of Mailer’s works for publication in oversize, illustrated editions by Taschen Books, a project conceived by Lawrence Schiller. Three have been published, including The Fight, which appeared in 2016. In 2018, his two-volume edition, Norman Mailer: The Sixties, was published by the Library of America.
Lennon is the founding president of The Norman Mailer Society (established in 2003), serves on its Board, and serves as chair of the editorial board of The Mailer Review. Now entering its thirteenth year, the Review publishes an annual volume containing the scholarly work of Mailer scholars and contemporary writers, including Christopher Hitchens, Joan Didion, William Kennedy, Morris Dickstein, E. L. Doctorow, Barbara Probst Solomon, Christopher Ricks, Günter Grass, Don DeLillo, Gay Talese, Max Apple, Gina Centrello, Tina Brown, Philip Roth, David Ebershoff, Kathy Perutz, Robert Stone, Mark Edmundson, and Andrew O’Hagan. The Review has also published several previously unpublished pieces by Mailer, including essays, letters, interviews, short stories, and an excerpt from a play he wrote while at Harvard, titled “The Naked and the Dead.” The Review is co-sponsored by the University of South Florida. Finally, Lennon serves on the Board of the Mailer Center, and has advised its president, Lawrence Schiller in organizing summer workshops, the annual gala, and on relations with academic institutions. They have been friends and associates for many years, having met in the 1990s. He has held academic posts at several schools, including nine years as Provost and Acting President at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania. He continues to teach in the Maslow Family Creative Writing MFA Program at Wilkes, which he co-founded in 2004. Mailer was the chair of the Wilkes University Program’s Advisory Board until his death. For more biographical detail, see his website, www.jmichaellennon.com. References: Allen Ahearn Appraisal (Fed. I.D. # 52-2219136)
Lennon is the founding president of The Norman Mailer Society (established in 2003), serves on its Board, and serves as chair of the editorial board of The Mailer Review. Now entering its thirteenth year, the Review publishes an annual volume containing the scholarly work of Mailer scholars and contemporary writers, including Christopher Hitchens, Joan Didion, William Kennedy, Morris Dickstein, E. L. Doctorow, Barbara Probst Solomon, Christopher Ricks, Günter Grass, Don DeLillo, Gay Talese, Max Apple, Gina Centrello, Tina Brown, Philip Roth, David Ebershoff, Kathy Perutz, Robert Stone, Mark Edmundson, and Andrew O’Hagan. The Review has also published several previously unpublished pieces by Mailer, including essays, letters, interviews, short stories, and an excerpt from a play he wrote while at Harvard, titled “The Naked and the Dead.” The Review is co-sponsored by the University of South Florida. Finally, Lennon serves on the Board of the Mailer Center, and has advised its president, Lawrence Schiller in organizing summer workshops, the annual gala, and on relations with academic institutions. They have been friends and associates for many years, having met in the 1990s. He has held academic posts at several schools, including nine years as Provost and Acting President at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania. He continues to teach in the Maslow Family Creative Writing MFA Program at Wilkes, which he co-founded in 2004. Mailer was the chair of the Wilkes University Program’s Advisory Board until his death. For more biographical detail, see his website, www.jmichaellennon.com. References: Allen Ahearn Appraisal (Fed. I.D. # 52-2219136)
Creator
- From the Collection: Lennon, Michael (Person)
Repository Details
Part of the Wilkes University Archives Repository
Contact:
84 W South St.
Wilkes-Barre PA 18701 US
570-408-2000
570-408-7823 (Fax)
ask.archives@wilkes.edu
84 W South St.
Wilkes-Barre PA 18701 US
570-408-2000
570-408-7823 (Fax)
ask.archives@wilkes.edu