1977

A quiet, between-books year given over to the Egyptian novel. Mailer publishes no book of his own - only reissue prefaces, the Harvard-Advocate memoir 'Our Man at Harvard,' and the television essay 'Of a Small and Modest Malignancy.' In October he renews his feud with Gore Vidal in a much-reported scuffle at Lally Weymouth's party, and he testifies for the defense at a Canadian drug-smuggling trial.

Norman Mailer on the cover of Esquire, November 1977 ("Norman Mailer Battles Cavett, Capote and Vidal")

Mailer spent 1977 largely at his desk, deep in the “Egyptian novel” that would become Ancient Evenings (83.18). He published no book of his own — only a preface to the Berkley reissue of Why Are We in Vietnam? (77.1) — but two memoir-essays stand out: “Our Man at Harvard” (77.2), his recollection of the Harvard Advocate in 1942, and “Of a Small and Modest Malignancy, Wicked and Bristling with Dots” (77.7), an Esquire essay on his television years.

Summer — a trial in Canada

In June, Mailer testified for the defense at the Ontario drug-smuggling trial of Robert Rowbotham, reported in “Johnny Reeferseed” (77.3); his full testimony appears the next year as “On Weed and Karma” (78.1).

Fall — the Vidal fight

24 October — At Lally Weymouth’s New York party, Mailer and Gore Vidal came to blows again, a renewal of the feud running back to the 1971 Cavett show. The scuffle and its coverage (77.4–77.9) filled the gossip columns for weeks. Mailer also turns up, quoted at length, in two friends’ books of the year — George Plimpton‘s boxing memoir Shadow Box (77.13) and Diana Trilling‘s We Must March My Darlings (77.14) — and names Henry Miller the living writer he most admires (77.11).

Referenced by 13

Works

Days