Dial Press

American trade publisher (founded 1923) that became Mailer's primary American book publisher from An American Dream (1965) through the 1960s and into the early 1970s. The agreement was signed in the fall of 1963 by Mailer's new literary agent, Scott Meredith. Dial Press editor E. L. Doctorow was one of Mailer's editors for An American Dream.

Dial Press was a New York trade publisher founded in 1923 by Lincoln MacVeagh; by the early 1960s it was an established literary house with a strong fiction list. Mailer signed with Dial Press for An American Dream in the fall of 1963, through his new literary agent Scott Meredith (per JML Days RTF and the published Days, p. 354): “Scott Meredith becomes his literary agent in the fall, and successfully negotiates the sale of An American Dream to Dial Press, and the movie rights to MGM.” E. L. Doctorow — by then a Dial Press editor and an aspiring novelist himself — was one of Mailer’s editors for An American Dream (per the published Days, p. 355).

Dial Press serves as Mailer’s primary American book publisher from An American Dream (15 March 1965) through Cannibals and Christians (29 August 1966), The Deer Park: A Play (1967), The Short Fiction of Norman Mailer (1967), and into the early 1970s. The Dial Press / Meredith / Mailer arrangement marks Mailer’s move away from Putnam’s, which had been his American publisher since The Deer Park (1955) through The Presidential Papers (63.37, November 1963).

Stub; to be expanded as the Dial Press / Mailer relationship runs through the mid- and late-1960s ingests.

Related pages

• 1963 | Scott Meredith | An American Dream | E. L. Doctorow
• The Presidential Papers (63.37)

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Last updated: 2026-05-27