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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.