American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters
Honorary society of American artists and writers; Mailer was inducted on 7 December 1984, taking chair 19, previously held by Tennessee Williams and Alexander Calder.
The American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters — the honorary society of the country’s leading artists, composers, and writers — inducted Mailer on 7 December 1984, alongside the novelist Erskine Caldwell, in a class the press called the Academy’s “Select 50” (84.31). Mailer took chair 19, last held by Tennessee Williams and before him by the sculptor Alexander Calder; he joked that he hoped “some of his [Williams’s] talent will rub off on me.” Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.’s citation predicted that “posterity [will] regard him as one of the giants — if at times a wounded giant — of our age.” Mailer had earlier read his memorial tribute to Dwight Macdonald at an Institute dinner (83.57).
Stub created during the 1984 ingest.