Join Lit Hub at Film Forum on Saturday, June 29th, at 5:30 p.m. ET, where we’ll be co-presenting a screening of the new film HOW TO COME ALIVE with Norman Mailer, an exploration of the infamous writer’s life and oeuvre. Our editor Olivia Rutigliano will moderate a Q&A with filmmaker Jeff Zimbalist, Michael Mailer, and Mailer Biographer J. Michael Lennon.
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Get up to two discounted $13 tickets (regular $17) to the screening and first two weeks of showings by entering promo code LITHUB24 at checkout.
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“There is no greater impotence in all the world like knowing you are right and that the wave of the world is wrong, yet the wave crashes upon you.”
“The mark of mediocrity is to look for precedent.”
Such were the mantras and motivations, for better or worse, of Norman Mailer—hailed as the new Tolstoy at age 25 with the publication of his first book The Naked and the Dead, author of 11 best-sellers, winner of multiple Pulitzers and a National Book Award, and canonized for some as the last major American public intellectual.
Equally infamous—for stabbing his second wife (of six) and ensuing psychiatric treatment, running unsuccessfully for mayor of NYC, antagonizing feminism, and courting Hollywood fame with his directorial flop Maidstone in which he also starred—Mailer’s life and work are compellingly interwoven in this intimate documentary portrait that investigates the literary lion’s spectacular flaws, along with his passion for rigorously staking out unpopular positions. With never-before-seen archival material (including a legendary on-set row involving Mailer, Rip Torn, and a hammer), and interviews with ex-wives, children, and luminaries who knew him including Oliver Stone, John Waters, and James Wolcott.
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How the New York Times Reacted to Norman Mailer’s First Novel
Should Norman Mailer Have Any Legacy Beyond Being the Guy Who Stabbed His Wife?
Joan Didion on Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song
Everything You Need to Know About Norman Mailer’s Recent (Non-)Cancellation
The Future President and the Novelist: When Norman Mailer Met John F. Kennedy
The Time James Grady Watched Norman Mailer Try to Fight G. Gordon Liddy in the Street
When Kurt Vonnegut Met Norman Mailer in Cape Cod’s Legendary “Helltown”
James Patterson Remembers His First Literary Party, Where James Baldwin Fought Norman Mailer
James Toback Tells The Story of Getting Punched by Norman Mailer