Norman Mailer: Works and Days

Letter to John Hohenberg

A letter (28 December 1972) printed in John Hohenberg's history of the Pulitzer Prizes, in which Mailer reflects on why The Naked and the Dead did not win the prize - his support for Henry Wallace - and on the effect of his Armies of the Night Pulitzer on his mayoral campaign.

A letter to John Hohenberg (dated 28 December 1972), printed in Hohenberg’s The Pulitzer Prizes: A History of the Awards (Columbia University Press, 1974). Mailer reflects on why The Naked and the Dead (48.2) did not receive the Pulitzer — “I had come out all ten thumbs and ten big toes for Henry Wallace, and for all I know may have been considered a fellow-traveler or a Communist dupe” — and comments on the effect his Armies of the Night (68.8) Pulitzer had on his 1969 mayoral campaign.

Lennon & Lennon: 74.20
Cite as: /letters/1974-letter-to-john-hohenberg
Last updated: 2026-06-07