Mike Lennon remembers when he and Norman Mailer became acquainted. “I saw him on the Dick Cavett show, the famous show when he was on with Gore Vidal and Janet Flanner, and they got into an imbroglio over various issues,” Lennon said. “I wrote him a letter and told him that I thought Vidal had maligned him unfairly. Lo and behold, I got a wonderful long letter back from him.” Then a graduate student at the University of Illinois, Lennon says he was “quite shocked and moved” that the famous author would write him back.