2% van de totale briefwisseling, schat Lennon. Het is een rijke selectie, toont Mailer als een geëngageerd, ambitieus, onvermoeibaar schrijver - ook van brieven naar collega-schrijvers, fans, vrienden, acteurs, recensenten, zelfs presidenten. Veel info over motivatie en intenties bij het schrijven van zijn boeken en het maken van zijn films. De overeenkomsten met Hemingway (zoals ik die ken van het eerste deel van de briefwisseling) zijn onmiskenbaar: diezelfde drang naar authenticiteit, oprechtheid en trouw aan het eigen ego. Niet toegeven dat je in de fout ging is erger dan de fout begaan, in de fout gaan is minder erg wanneer het in lijn ligt met je karakter.
Noten bij de brieven helemaal achteraan in het boek, wat best onpraktisch is. Nummering van de brieven en noten niet altijd correct. ( )

Amazing collection of some remarkable letters from Mailer is well worth the time of interested parties. However, the choice to include all comments/context as endnotes makes for a very tedious read, especially when you consider this thing weighs about 10lbs : ( ( )

Selected Letters of Norman Mailer
Edited by J. Michael Lennon
Random House
Reviewed by Karl Wolff

Norman Mailer (1923 - 2007) was a titan of the Postwar literary scene. He crashed on to the landscape of American letters in 1948 with his Big Damn Book about a Big Damn War with The Naked and The Dead. Throughout his career, he wrestled with the legacy of Ernest Hemingway, exploding the Stoic Hero in 1965 with the controversial novel, An American Dream. Besides his novels, his personal reporting of events created the New Journalism of the Sixties. His pioneering non-fiction writing led to two Pulitzer Prizes. The first for The Armies of the Night, written in 1968, and the second for The Executioner's Song, in 1979. In public appearances, Mailer was erudite, quick-witted, belligerent, pugnacious, and kind of a dick. His spats with Gore Vidal are the stuff of legend. He married six times and will be remembered for stabbing one of his wives with a pen knife. Was he a problematic public figure? You bet. Should you read his work? I would highly recommend it.

The publication of Selected Letters of Norman Mailer is a momentous occasion, not only for Mailer fans and scholars, but for those interested in the long-term development of this controversial writer. Edited by J. Michael Lennon, Mailer's archivist and authorized biographer, culled a choice 3% from Mailer's voluminous correspondence. Mailer was a compulsive letter writer. In this collection, we witness the budding friendships between Mailer, William Styron, and James Jones. He answers letters from aspiring writers and has prolonged arguments with his various publishers. His battle to get Rinehart and Company to include "fug" in The Naked and The Dead was a small triumph for the freedom of expression. While not the four-letter word, in 1948 the United States still wallowed in puritanism and repression when it came to arts and literature. Mailer poured his experiences of being a Marine stationed in the Philippines into creating a Big Important Novel. In addition to the letters, Lennon provides copious notes, identifies otherwise obscure historical figures, and offers ratings for all of Mailer's published works.

While Mailer presented himself as an exemplar of Jewish-American machismo, through the letters we get a glimpse from another perspective. Like many writers, he constantly complained about money problems. He also wrote passionate letters to his several wives. We witness the birth of children and of literary works. The process of writing a novel or a make-work non-fiction piece comes with Mailer's unending commentary. By turns acerbic, tender, bitchy, profane, and erudite, we see both private individual and public persona. He was an American public intellectual, back when we had those types. Mailer was a mainstream writer of tremendous importance. His sudden fame came at the cost of balancing the writing craft with public appearances. The question still remains about his literary worth. Will he be remembered ten, twenty, or 100 years into the future? Was he the next Herman Melville? Or was he yet another Ernest Hemingway derivative? Only time will tell. The publication of these letters can shed a light into determining his literary value for future generations.

Selected Letters of Norman Mailer captures the private personality of a larger-than-life author. It is an exploration of everything from military service, religious faith, masculinity, machismo, and Jewish identity.
Out of 10/9.0

http://www.cclapcenter.com/2016/01/book_review_selected_letters_o.html ( )

Selected Letters of Norman Mailer, Edited by J. Michael Lennon, was a fascinating study into the mind of one of our best-known and prolific writers. The letters were arranged by decade - - the 1940's to the 2000's - - which made the letters easier to read. Through the decades we see the many facets of Norman Mailer and his passion about many things: his family, his service in the Army, his many wives and children, his political views, his friends, and most of all, his writing. Through his letters we are given a peek into the thoughts and life of a complicated, talented man with a lively and honest gift of communication. In the end, the book reads like a biography told in a most personal way. ( )

I have a love him/hate him thing with Norman Mailer. Twentysome years ago, when I was reading Harlot's Ghost and he was still writing feisty magazine articles, I was a fan girl. Then I slogged through The Naked and the Dead, which may be a very authentic WWII novel, but authentic WWII novels are not my favorite. That's not enough to turn me against the man, but it dimmed my enthusiasm enough to give an ear to the criticism about his misogyny and his ego. He was a busy, complicated, and long-lived man. He fought in WWII. He stabbed one of his 6 wives. He founded the Village Voice. He ran for mayor of New York City, advocating secession to form the 51st state. He wrote a lot of books, including one that he called non-fiction that won a Pulitzer for best novel.

This enormous new book of letters doesn't resolve my conflicted views of Mailer, but it does validate them. J. Michael Lennon has compiled over 700 letters out of over 45,000 pieces of Mailer's correspondence. All this massive sampling can do is give hundreds of glimpses into the mind of a man who continues to fascinate. ( )