Adele Morales

Norman Mailer's second wife (married 19 April 1954, separated March 1961, divorced February 1962) — an American painter whom Mailer met through Jean Malaquais and with whom he shared the most dramatic and turbulent years of his private life. Mother of his second and third daughters, Danielle (b. 16 March 1957) and Elizabeth "Betsy" Mailer (b. 28 September 1959). On 20 November 1960, at an apartment party on West 94th Street convened to announce Mailer's candidacy for Mayor of New York, Mailer stabs Adele with a penknife after an early-morning argument; she refuses to press charges, and Mailer receives a suspended sentence for third-degree assault after seventeen days of psychiatric observation at Bellevue Hospital.

1951–1954 — before marriage

Mailer begins living with Adele Morales in early 1951, after separating from Bea in the winter — first at 85 Monroe Street (March–June 1951) and then at 14 Pitt Street (September 1951 through June 1952) in New York. The pair will live together through Mailer’s divorce from Bea (January 1952), his move to a sixth-floor walkup at 41 First Avenue in October 1952, his year of short-story writing and early work on The Deer Park, and his founding appearance in Dissent (54.1) in the spring of 1954.

1954 — marriage and 320 East 55th Street

On 19 April 1954 Mailer marries Adele at City Hall in New York. They move into a duplex at 320 East 55th Street.

1956 and after — the painter and the boxing coach

When the Mailers move to Bridgewater, Connecticut in the fall of 1956, Mailer begins taking boxing lessons from Adele’s father, Al Morales, a former professional boxer. The connection to the Morales family thus runs through Mailer’s own athletic preoccupations as much as through Adele.

1957 and 1959 — Danielle and Betsy

16 March 1957 — Danielle is born to Adele.

28 September 1959 — Elizabeth Anne (“Betsy”) is born to Adele.

1960 — the stabbing

On 20 November 1960, after a party at 250 West 94th Street convened to announce Mailer’s intended candidacy for Mayor of New York, Mailer stabs Adele with a penknife after an early-morning argument. She is seriously wounded but declines to press charges. Mailer is committed for psychiatric observation to the violent ward of Bellevue Hospital for 17 days (22 November–8 December). In March 1961 the couple separate; on 4 May 1961 Mailer pleads guilty to felonious assault (61.5a — per Lennon’s New York Mirror account; both Lennon’s JML Days revised RTF and his published Days, p. 13, compress this as “In March, he pleads guilty,” so the 4 May date is followed here from the Works register, with the discrepancy held to backlog); on 13 November 1961 he is given a suspended sentence and placed on probation for three years (61.20). See 1960, 1961, 1962.

1962 — divorce

In late February 1962 Mailer divorces Adele in Juárez, Mexico.

Later life

Adele Mailer’s memoir, The Last Party: Scenes from My Life with Norman Mailer (New York: Barricade Books, 1997), remains the primary source for her account of the 1954–1962 years. She continued to paint and exhibit in New York until her death in 2015.

Related pages

• 1951 | 1952 | 1954 | 1957 | 1959 | 1960 | 1961 | 1962
• Danielle Mailer | Elizabeth Mailer | Beatrice Silverman | Jean Malaquais
• The Meaning of 'Western Defense' (54.1)

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Last updated: 2026-06-17