1955
Mailer's most consequential year of the decade so far. He finishes the "Lipton's" journal (4 March); his nephew Peter is born to his sister Barbara (11 April); The Deer Park is published by Putnam's on 14 October and becomes a bestseller; and two weeks later, on 26 October, the first issue of The Village Voice — which Mailer co-founds and names with Daniel Wolf and Edwin Fancher — appears. He publishes eight pieces across the year (55.1–55.8), among them the essay "The Homosexual Villain" that he later called "the bravest thing I ever did."
January — “The Homosexual Villain”
January — “The Homosexual Villain” (55.1), Mailer’s essay confronting the convention of the homosexual character as villain — and his own prejudice — is the cover feature of the January One: The Homosexual Magazine.
4 March — last entry in “Lipton’s”
4 March — Mailer makes the last entry in “Lipton’s,” the marijuana journal he began on 1 December 1954; it has run to roughly 112,000 words.
Spring — Dissent
In the spring “What I Think of Artistic Freedom” (55.2) appears in Dissent.
11 April — Peter born to Barbara
11 April — Peter is born to Mailer’s sister Barbara.
5 September — with Fig Gwaltney
5 September — “Two Ex-GI’s Write Revenge on Army” (55.3), a brief article-interview, quotes Mailer and his Army friend Fig Gwaltney in the Battle Creek (Mich.) Enquirer-News.
14 October — The Deer Park
14 October — G. P. Putnam’s Sons publishes The Deer Park (55.4), Mailer’s third novel, a year after Rinehart suppressed it. It spends fifteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, reaching number six on 20 November. Stung by the reviews, Mailer composes the ironic Village Voice advertisement “All over America The Deer Park is Getting Nothing but Raves” (55.5, 16 November) and writes to book-review editors (55.7) defending the book against claims that it had been bowdlerized for Putnam.
26 October — The Village Voice
26 October — The first issue of The Village Voice appears. Mailer co-founds and names the Greenwich Village weekly with Daniel Wolf and Edwin Fancher. His own column, “Quickly: A Column for Slow Readers,” will begin in the paper in January 1956 (56.1–56.17).
December — interview and reference entry
December — Lyle Stuart’s “An Intimate Interview with Norman Mailer” (55.6) appears in Exposé; on 18 December Mailer writes the open “Letter to Herman Kogan” (55.7) to the Chicago Sun-Times. Mailer’s autobiographical entry “Mailer, Norman” (55.8), written back in December 1952, also appears this year, in Twentieth Century Authors: First Supplement.
Related pages
- 1954 | 1956
- The Deer Park | The Homosexual Villain | What I Think of Artistic Freedom | Two Ex-GI's Write Revenge on Army | All over America The Deer Park is Getting Nothing but Raves | An Intimate Interview with Norman Mailer | Letter to Herman Kogan | Mailer, Norman
- The Village Voice | G. P. Putnam's Sons | Dissent | One: The Homosexual Magazine | Daniel Wolf | Edwin Fancher | Barbara Jane Mailer
- Quickly (11 January 1956) (56.1) | Quickly (2 May 1956) (56.17)