1958
After a bitter falling-out with William Styron and growing boredom with country living, the Mailers leave Bridgewater and move back to New York, to 73 Perry Street in Greenwich Village. In the fall Mailer lectures for a week at the University of Chicago, where he meets Robert F. Lucid, his future archivist and lifelong friend; he is invited into the Actors' Studio, where staged readings of his Deer Park play are performed. The year's eight publications (58.1–58.7, plus 58.4a) extend the "White Negro" debate and include the antagonistic Mike Wallace interviews.
Back to New York — 73 Perry Street
After a bitter falling-out with William Styron and growing boredom with country living, the Mailers move back to New York, renting an apartment at 73 Perry Street in Greenwich Village.
The “White Negro” debate continues
In the winter Dissent prints “Reflections on Hipsterism” (58.1), the Malaquais–Polsky exchange on “The White Negro.” In the fall Partisan Review runs the story “Advertisements for Myself on the Way Out” (58.4), and in December Mailer takes “The White Negro” to a Yale forum (58.4a).
The Mike Wallace interviews; other pieces
Excerpts from a Mike Wallace interview run in the New York Post in July (58.2), and the Night Beat interview is collected in the book Mike Wallace Asks (58.7). Mailer also publishes a Post letter answering Paul Gregory (58.3) and a related letter to Contact (58.5) over the film of The Naked and the Dead, and his third Harvard class-record statement (58.6).
Fall — Chicago, Lucid, and the Actors’ Studio
Mailer spends a week lecturing at the University of Chicago, where he meets Robert F. Lucid, who becomes his archivist and lifelong friend. He is invited to join the Actors’ Studio (Playwright and Directors Unit) in New York, where staged readings of his Deer Park play are performed. Late in the year his sister Barbara begins doing secretarial work for him.
Related pages
- 1957 | 1959
- Reflections on Hipsterism | Mike Wallace Asks: Norman Mailer | Norman Mailer Answers Gregory | Advertisements for Myself on the Way Out | Hip Mailer Talks to Orwell Forum; Defines American Beatnik Generation | Letter to the Editor, Contact | Statement for Class Record | Norman Mailer (in Mike Wallace Asks)
- Robert F. Lucid | Mike Wallace | William Styron | Barbara Jane Mailer