Esquire

American monthly magazine founded in 1933 by Arnold Gingrich and David A. Smart. Esquire was, by Lennon's count, the magazine "with which Mailer has been most closely identified" — home to more than forty Mailer contributions from the early 1950s through the 1970s. Mailer's first appearance is a letter to the editor on Ezra Pound in November 1951 (51.3a); his first story and substantive essay run in the April 1953 issue (53.1, 53.2).

Mailer at Esquire, early 1950s

Mailer’s Esquire appearances through 1953:

• Letter to the editor on Ezra Pound (51.3a, November 1951) — first appearance.
• “Backstage with Esky” (53.1, April 1953) — interview by Esquire editor on Barbary Shore, 53.2, and the 1949 Hollywood stint.
• “The Language of Men” (53.2, April 1953) — first Mailer story in the magazine; set in occupied Japan.

The Esquire–Mailer high period, 1960–1963

The Mailer–Esquire relationship deepens dramatically across 1960–1963:

• “Superman Comes to the Supermarket” (60.9, November 1960) — the Democratic Convention/JFK essay that announces the New Journalism.
• “A Farewell to His Honor” (61.1, January 1961) — Mailer’s letter complaining about Esquire’s handling of 60.9 (the “Supermart” title change, the photograph, the inserted headlines).
• “An Evening with Jackie Kennedy: Being an Essay in Three Acts” (62.12, July 1962) — the Kennedy diptych’s second panel.
• “The Big Bite” column (62.18, November 1962) launches the fourteen-installment monthly run that continues through December 1963 (62.18, 62.19, 63.2–63.13).
• The September 1962 Patterson–Liston I coverage occasions “Ten Thousand Words a Minute” (63.3, February 1963) — the column-installment-as-long-essay that Lennon notes as “one of Mailer’s most anthologized essays.”
• “Some Children of the Goddess: Further Evaluations of the Talent in the Room” (63.8, July 1963) — long literary-criticism essay on Mailer’s nine contemporary American writers; the column title was dropped for this longer piece. Calder Willingham responded in the December 1963 Esquire with “The Way It Isn’t Done: Notes on the Distress of Norman Mailer,” 306–308.
• Big Bite December 1963 (63.13) — the fourteenth and final column — ends with the announcement of An American Dream: “One is tempted to call this novel An American Dream.”
• “The Last Night” (63.39, December 1963) — Mailer’s apocalyptic short story in the same Big Bite finale issue.
• An American Dream serialization, January–August 1964 (64.2–64.9) — eight monthly installments leading to the 15 March 1965 Dial Press first edition.

Related pages

• 1951 | 1953 | 1960 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964
• An Evening with Jackie Kennedy: Being an Essay in Three Acts | The "Big Bite" | Ten Thousand Words a Minute | Some Children of the Goddess: Further Evaluations of the Talent in the Room | The Last Night | Superman Comes to the Supermarket
• Letter to the Editor [on Ezra Pound] (51.3a) | Backstage with Esky (53.1) | The Language of Men (53.2) | A Farewell to His Honor (61.1) | The "Big Bite" (62.19) | The "Big Bite" (63.2) | The "Big Bite" (63.13) | An American Dream: A New Novel Serialized Exclusively in Esquire by Norman Mailer; Installment One: The Harbors of the Moon (64.2) | Installment VIII: At the Lion and the Serpent (64.9)

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Last updated: 2026-05-27