Photos in the Brooklyn neighborhood where Norman Mailer lived for 45 years, by Marleen Wynants.
Category: Media Page 10 of 13
Years ago, in my very early twenties, I set out to write a book. I started a routine. I no longer drank, so I substituted a glass bottle of sparkling water for beer (similar heft), thrived on a diet of Parliament Lights and iced coffee, and always took a nap in the afternoon. For inspiration in the early mornings, though, I turned to Norman Mailer’s book on writing, “The Spooky Art.” I would read passages for motivation; it was as if Mailer, like the boxing coach in Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out, was a few steps behind me, over my shoulder in a hooded sweatshirt, imparting brutal words of encouragement: never skip out on the muse, write every day, and, please, for the sake of your readers, don’t be such a chicken shit.
Dr. J. Michael Lennon is the man who helped Mailer put “The Spooky Art” together. Lennon, an author and professor at Wilkes University, also collaborated on Mailer’s last book, “On God: An Uncommon Conversation.” Since Mailer’s death in Nov. 2007, Lennon has been at work on the only authorized biography of Mailer’s life, a 300,000 word volume that will be published by Simon&Schuster. At the same time, he’s played a major role in establishing The Norman Mailer Writers Colony in Provincetown, MA.
Jessamine Chan writes:
This fall sees three books about the exuberantly macho literary titan Norman Mailer. Clocking in at 928 pages, J. Michael Lennon’s authorized biography, Norman Mailer: A Double Life, utilizes insider access, interviews, and unpublished letters. Mind of an Outlaw: Selected Essays, edited by Philip Sipiora, is the first posthumous publication since Mailer’s death in 2007. This volume champions his role as a public intellectual and features a previously unpublished essay. (The third title is Melville House’s Vidal vs. Mailer.)
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