Norman Mailer: Works and Days

Two Bucks — 20 Dances

Newsweek review-interview by an unidentified writer, catching Mailer at a moment of self-description as 'an amateur poet' ('When it comes to poets like a Yeats — I play fraternity house piano'), expressing his fears that America may become 'the finest and most exquisite expression of totalitarianism,' and proposing 'I propose the Resist!' against the Twist.

“Two Bucks — 20 Dances.” Review-interview by unidentified writer. Newsweek, 12 March 1962, 104. Article-interview.

Mailer says he is an amateur poet: “When it comes to poets like a Yeats — I play fraternity house piano.” He goes on to express his fears that America may become “the finest and most exquisite expression of totalitarianism.” On the Twist: “I propose the Resist!”

First published: 1962-03-12
Form: article-interview
Lennon & Lennon: 62.5a
Cite as: /works/1962-03-12-two-bucks-twenty-dances
Last updated: 2026-05-27