1972

A year on the road. Deep in debt and in arrears to the IRS, Mailer lectures at more than twenty colleges, often showing his films. Existential Errands, his fourth miscellany, appears in April; he covers the 1972 conventions for the book St. George and the Godfather, out in late October. In September he and Carol Stevens move to Stockbridge, Massachusetts; on 12 October his father, Isaac Barnett Mailer, dies. He begins the long-promised 'Egyptian novel' (Ancient Evenings), meets Lawrence Schiller and starts Marilyn, and first meets J. Michael Lennon at Western Illinois University.

Deep in debt and in arrears to the IRS, Mailer spent much of 1972 on the lecture circuit — more than twenty colleges over the year, frequently showing his films and answering hostile or admiring crowds. Beneath the touring, he began the long-promised “Egyptian novel” that would become Ancient Evenings (83.18).

Winter — the road and the films

Through February Mailer toured the South and the mid-Atlantic, screening Maidstone and debating Women’s Liberation: a contentious University of South Florida appearance (72.0, 72.0a), Temple Israel in Miami (72.1), Duke (72.2, 72.3), American University (72.3a), and the University of Delaware, where he traced Maidstone’s impetus to the assassination of Robert Kennedy (72.5).

Spring — Existential Errands

17 April — Little, Brown publishes Existential Errands (72.7), Mailer’s fourth miscellany — essays on film and theatre, the Prisoner of Sex and Fire on the Moon squibs, and a negative review of Norman Podhoretz’s Making It. The same week, two Harvard Crimson writers cover his rowdy Harvard Advocate benefit appearance (72.6, 72.8). In May, the National Observer prints an NBC panel in which Mailer complains that Apollo 11 failed to stir the public because no one explored “the sensuous properties of the moon” (72.9).

Summer–fall — the conventions

Mailer covered the 1972 conventions in Miami: “The Evil in the Room” (72.10) ran in Life in July, and the whole account appeared in late October as St. George and the Godfather (72.17) — George McGovern as St. George, Richard Nixon as the Godfather, narrated once more through Aquarius. Advance excerpts ran in the New York Review of Books (“The Genius,” 72.20). A train of campus readings and interviews followed (72.12–72.16, 72.21).

September — Mailer and Carol Stevens move to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where he buys a house.

12 October — Mailer’s father, Isaac Barnett Mailer, dies. St. George and the Godfather, out the same month, is dedicated “To dad (alias Isaac Barnett Mailer).”

In late October, at Western Illinois University, Mailer showed Beyond the Law and read from the still-unreleased St. George; the appearance was reported by J. Michael Lennon in “Norman Mailer in Illinois” (72.19) — the occasion of the first meeting between Mailer and Lennon, his future editor, archivist, and authorized biographer. In November Mailer met Lawrence Schiller and began work on Marilyn.

December — the Statendam

12 December — Mailer joined a cruise aboard the S.S. Statendam to observe the launch of Apollo 17, sitting on panels with Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and Ben Bova (72.24); the voyage carried into the new year (73.1).

Related pages

• 1971 | 1973
• Existential Errands (72.7) | St. George and the Godfather (72.17)
• Aquarius | Lawrence Schiller | J. Michael Lennon | Isaac Barnett "Barney" Mailer
• Ancient Evenings (83.18) | Mailer's on Tour, Recouping (72.1) | Mailer Discusses His Film (72.2) | Mailer Addresses Mailer on Mailer (72.3a) | The Evil in the Room (72.10) | The Genius (72.20) | Norman Mailer Talks Politics at Towson (72.12) | Norman Mailer in Full Cry (72.16) | Norman Mailer in Illinois (72.19) | What Apollo Has Meant to Mankind (73.1)

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Last updated: 2026-06-04