Eiichi Yamanishi

Mailer's longtime Japanese translator (山西英一); a frequent correspondent, including the An American Dream letters and a 27 January 1965 note reporting Warner Brothers' purchase of the film rights. Lennon's 2004 collection romanizes the name 'Yaminishi.'

Eiichi Yamanishi (山西英一) was Mailer’s longtime Japanese translator and a frequent correspondent. Mailer’s 15 March 1961 letter advises on the cuts for the Japanese abridgment of Advertisements for Myself and recounts a wartime conversation in Onahama that, Mailer says, shaped The Naked and the Dead. He is the recipient of several of the letters collected in Norman Mailer’s Letters on An American Dream; in one of 27 January 1965 Mailer reports that Warner Brothers had bought the film rights to An American Dream for $200,000.

A note on the name: the correct romanization of 山西英一 is Yamanishi, used here as canonical; Lennon’s 2004 collection (and this project’s earlier letter pages) spelled it “Yaminishi,” retained as an alias.

Related pages

• Letter to Eiichi Yamanishi | Letter to Eiichi Yamanishi (16 October 1963) | Letter to Eiichi Yamanishi (27 January 1965) | Norman Mailer's Letters on An American Dream, 1963–1969 | An American Dream

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Last updated: 2026-06-18