1984
Mailer publishes Tough Guys Don't Dance, his Provincetown murder mystery and first Random House novel, on 20 August, riding it to number four on the bestseller list through a months-long American and British tour. In the summer he is elected president of PEN American Center for a 1984–1986 term and begins planning the 1986 International PEN Congress. He spends fifteen days in Russia in March, the basis of a Parade essay, and on 7 December is inducted into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, taking the chair vacated by Tennessee Williams.
Winter — Maidstone revived and a trip to Russia
The year opened with Mailer’s films back in view: on 19 January Nan Robertson reported his appearance at New York’s Thalia Theater for a showing of Maidstone (71.28) alongside Beyond the Law and a documentary, Norman Mailer: A Sanction to Write (84.1) — Mailer’s verdict on Maidstone now being that it was “a terribly flawed and imperfect movie that’s really interesting for people who are obsessed by film.” In March he spent fifteen days in Russia, the firsthand basis of his August Parade essay “A Country, Not a Scenario” (84.16) and a touchstone for his recurring argument that Reagan’s “evil empire” rhetoric “did the worst possible single thing” for relations between the two countries (84.2).
Spring — the launch of Tough Guys Don’t Dance
By April advance interviews were running (84.2, 84.3), and Vanity Fair carried the first of two long excerpts in May (84.4). In late May Random House threw a dinner in Washington, D.C. to launch the novel — an event reported and re-reported for months afterward (84.5, 84.6, 84.8, and finally Mark Bowden’s “The Prisoner of Celebrity,” 84.30). Mailer described the book candidly as one written “out of wedlock” in sixty-one days to discharge a contract debt.
July — the PEN presidency
On 11 July Mailer was elected president of PEN American Center, his term to run 1984–1986 (84.9). In his statement he held that “writers can speak to one another across the world more quickly than can governments.” The office’s great project would be the 48th International PEN Congress he organized for New York in January 1986; planning for it began at once, with the idea of sixteen American authors speaking two at a time across eight evenings to raise funds (see 85.1, 85.2, and the 1986 entries).
August — publication and the bestseller climb
20 August — Random House published Tough Guys Don’t Dance (84.17), Mailer’s Provincetown murder mystery and his first novel for the house, dedicated to his agent Scott Meredith, with a dust-wrapper photograph by his neighbor Joel Meyerowitz; Franklin Library issued a simultaneous signed leather-bound edition. Michael Joseph followed in London on 15 October. The novel reached number four on the New York Times Book Review bestseller list on 30 September and sustained the year’s enormous interview cluster — an American leg through September (84.18–84.23a) and an English tour in October (84.22–84.27a) — gathered on the novel’s page.
Fall — the American Academy, and a centenary essay
On 7 December Mailer was inducted, with Erskine Caldwell, into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (84.31), taking chair 19 — last held by Tennessee Williams, and before him the sculptor Alexander Calder. Two days later the New York Times Book Review ran “Huckleberry Finn, Alive at 100” (84.32), his centenary essay on Twain and his only extended treatment of nineteenth-century American literature. The year closed with Targ Editions’ 250-copy limited edition of the story “The Last Night” (84.35), reprinted from Esquire (63.39).
Related pages
- 1983 | 1985
- Tough Guys Don’t Dance (84.17) | PEN American Center | American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters | A Country, Not a Scenario (84.16)
- Maidstone: A Mystery (71.28) | Norman Mailer: The Prisoner of Celebrity (84.30) | The Essential Mailer: Author Norman Mailer Talks about His New Novel, the Irish, and His Love for Chicago (84.18) | Huckleberry Finn, Alive at 100 (84.32) | The Last Night (63.39)