I feel lucky that a very sophisticated 11th grade English teacher, William
Teunis, introduced me at age 16 to Norman Mailer's writing by allowing for
the possibility of writing a book report on "The Naked & The Dead", though
in retrospect I'd say that I was more attracted to "Advertisements For
Myself" which I read on my own shortly afterwards. What I must have
intuited was Mailer's performative strengths. For a very long period after
that exposure, I was frustrated by my inability to witness Maileer perform
in public, though I did witness numerous "literary peerformances" in real
life by the novelist Stanley Elkin on the campus of Washington University
in St. Louis. All I could conclude was that Mailer didn't give readings at
universities or go on book tours. Finally, that seemed to change, perhaps
in the nineties, & I was able to catch 4-5 performances and establish a
cordial relationship with him.
I should add that Mailer did publish a book of poems at the end of what is
sometimes termed the "first period" of his career, Death For The Ladies
(And Other Disasters) NY: Putnam's, 1962.
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