Norman Mailer: Works and Days

Ingenue

A Village Voice letter criticizing Marta Curro's review of Millicent Brower's novel Ingenue — Brower being a distant cousin of Mailer's, with several ties to his early career.

“Ingenue.” Letter to the editor. The Village Voice, 11 March 1959, 4.

Mailer criticizes Marta Curro’s 7 March Village Voice review of Millicent Brower’s novel Ingenue, objecting that “letting one writer-actress revise [sic] the work of another is like leaving hashish on an assassin”. Brower (originally Brauer) was a distant cousin whom Mailer knew from childhood; her husband, Harvey Anhalt, typed The Naked and the Dead, and she was the lead in Mailer’s 1947 experimental film “Millie’s Dream.”

Lennon & Lennon: 59.5
Cite as: /letters/1959-03-11-ingenue
Last updated: 2026-06-07