From Newsday, 7 October 1967, 3, 20, 30. Reprinted by permission of Mike McGrady.
Norman Mailer is a writer. This fact is too often overlooked. Even by those who should know better. Critic Wilfrid Sheed calls him that “well-known pitchman and lay missionary” and critic Richard Gilman sees him as “one of the prices we pay for widespread literacy.” Critic John Wain introduces the phrase “stunt merchant” and columnist William Buckley says he is “a terribly good measure of the current disturbances in the air, a sort of lightning rod.” Sonny Liston has called him, with affection, “a bum,” and Norman Mailer has referred to himself, with at least equal affection, as “a slightly punch-drunk and ugly club fighter who can fight clean and fight dirty, but likes to fight.”