Letter to Reed Whittemore
A few lines declining the poet-editor's symposium invitation — 'I'm in trouble. I'm writing a novel for Esquire over the next eight months and since this by definition is a serial, I am suffering the perils of Pauline.'
A brief decline to Reed Whittemore, poet and editor of Carleton Miscellany: Mailer can’t take part in the symposium because he is “writing a novel for Esquire over the next eight months” and, the work being a serial, is “suffering the perils of Pauline.” He asks for a copy of the symposium when it appears.