Norman Mailer: Works and Days

Quick and Expensive Comments on the Talent in the Room

Mailer's combative survey of his literary contemporaries, appraising the writing of Jones, Styron, Capote, Kerouac, Bellow, Algren, Salinger, Willingham, Ellison, Baldwin, Gold, and others — appearing in Big Table around the publication of Advertisements for Myself.

“Quick and Expensive Comments on the Talent in the Room.” Big Table 3 (autumn–winter 1959), 88–100.

An essay in which Mailer appraises the writing of James Jones, William Styron, Truman Capote, Jack Kerouac, Saul Bellow, Nelson Algren, J. D. Salinger, Calder Willingham, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Herbert Gold, Paul Bowles, Vance Bourjaily, Chandler Brossard, Gore Vidal, Anatole Broyard, and Myron Kaufmann. Mailer sent Big Table editor Paul Carroll the galleys of Advertisements for Myself (59.13) for use in the magazine; Carroll, Mailer said, supplied the title.

Rpt: 13.1.

First published: 1959
Form: essay
Lennon & Lennon: 59.10
Cite as: /works/1959-quick-and-expensive-comments
Last updated: 2026-05-23