Interest in Books Flowers Where the Tall Corn Grows

Van Allen Bradley's Chicago News report on the University of Iowa mass-culture symposium, quoting Mailer on the writer's task of bridging the mass media to reach the serious reader.

“Interest in Books Flowers Where the Tall Corn Grows.” Article-interview by Van Allen Bradley. Chicago News, 7 December 1959.

Another report on the 4–5 December University of Iowa symposium. Mailer says the writer’s task is to “build a bridge across the no man’s land of the mass media and reach the serious reader who cannot stand bad books”.

Related pages

• 1959 | Eggheads in the Tall Corn
• 2 Symposium Authors Say Write for Elite, Not Masses (59.15) | Critic At-Large: Mailer's Apology (59.17) | Eggheads in the Tall Corn (59.18) | Twelfth Round: An Interview with Norman Mailer (83.10)

First published: 1959-12-07
Form: article-interview
Lennon & Lennon: 59.16
Cite as: /works/1959-12-07-interest-in-books-flowers
Last updated: 2026-05-23