Ten Thousand Words a Minute
Mailer's account of the first Floyd Patterson-Sonny Liston fight (25 September 1962, Chicago) and the press-conference aftermath in which Mailer made himself a part of the story. Twelve pages in the February 1963 Esquire — a long piece for the column, with the Big Bite title dropped. Mailer also comments on his 22 September 1962 debate with William F. Buckley Jr. (62.13a, 62.13b). 'One of Mailer's most anthologized essays,' per Lennon. Reprinted in The Presidential Papers (63.37) and partial in 98.7.
“Ten Thousand Words a Minute.” Esquire, February 1963, 109–20. Essay (fourth installment of The Big Bite; the column title was dropped for this long piece, per Lennon’s framing at 63.2–63.13).
Mailer’s account of the first Floyd Patterson–Sonny Liston championship fight on 25 September 1962 in Chicago (which Liston won by first-round knockout at 2:06) and of the press-conference aftermath in which Mailer — covering the fight for Esquire — made himself part of the story (see Lennon Works 62.14 through 62.17b for the four-day sequence of contemporary press accounts that frame Mailer’s own essay). The essay closes the long-form Mailer–Patterson–Liston cycle that Mailer would return to in King of the Hill (1971, on the Ali–Frazier first fight) and The Fight (1975, on the Ali–Foreman Rumble in the Jungle).
Mailer also comments in the essay on his 22 September 1962 debate with William F. Buckley Jr. in Chicago, which had taken place three days before Patterson–Liston I and which the Chicago coverage of the prizefight had partly displaced from the public conversation (see Lennon Works 62.13a, 62.13b, and 63.15).
“One of Mailer’s most anthologized essays,” per Lennon. Rpt: The Presidential Papers (63.37), 98.7 (partial).
Related pages
- 1963 | Esquire | Floyd Patterson | Sonny Liston | The Presidential Papers | William F. Buckley Jr.
- The Literate at the Fight (62.14) | Letter to the Editor (62.17a) | The Real Meaning of the Right Wing in America: Opposing Statements on the Role of the Right Wing in America Today: A Conservative's View by William F. Buckley Jr.; A Liberal's View by Norman Mailer (63.15)
- The "Big Bite" (63.2) | The "Big Bite" (63.13) | The Time of Our Time (98.7)