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Norman Mailer: Works and Days

1964-03-17-letter-to-martin-peretz

Norman Mailer's Letters on An American Dream, 1963–1969, ed. J. Michael Lennon (Sligo Press, 2004); transcription via the An American Dream Expanded digital edition (Project Mailer).

Dear Marty,1

Thanks for your letter. I’m not sure I’m going to go into a ski cabin next year, for it proved expensive, and full of headaches this season.

I still have my nose deep in the serial and I’m not sure I ever want to write a novel this way again. For cumulative fatigue may get in the way of finishing the book properly. I hope not, I think I still haven’t lost the book, but I’m feeling wrung out, dull, and smoking too many cigarettes these days. Forgive the lugubrious tone—I think I’m still recovering from the Clay-Liston fight.2 One of my secret dreams was to see Patterson and Liston have a great third fight.

Editorial notes (J. Michael Lennon)

Footnotes

  1. Editor-in-chief of The New Republic, Martin Peretz was a professor at Harvard when Mailer met him in the early 1960s. ↩

  2. Mailer watched Cassius Clay, now known as Muhammad Ali, defeat Sonny Liston for the heavyweight championship in Miami on 25 February 1964. ↩

Referenced by 1

Letters

Source: Norman Mailer's Letters on An American Dream, 1963–1969, ed. J. Michael Lennon (Sligo Press, 2004); transcription via the An American Dream Expanded digital edition (Project Mailer).
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Last updated: 2026-06-08