Some Children of the Goddess: Further Evaluations of the Talent in the Room
Mailer's long essay of literary criticism — titled 'Norman Mailer versus Nine Writers' on the Esquire table of contents — covering, in order, William Styron, James Jones, James Baldwin, William Burroughs, Joseph Heller, John Updike, Philip Roth, J. D. Salinger, and Saul Bellow, with additional comment on Vance Bourjaily. The subtitle links the essay to Mailer's 1959 'Quick and Expensive Comments on the Talent in the Room' (59.10) in Advertisements for Myself; this 1963 essay is its successor. One of Mailer's finest critical pieces. Calder Willingham's response, 'The Way It Isn't Done: Notes on the Distress of Norman Mailer,' appears in Esquire's December 1963 issue.
“Some Children of the Goddess: Further Evaluations of the Talent in the Room.” Esquire, July 1963, 63–69, 105. Long essay of literary criticism (ninth installment of The Big Bite; the column title was dropped for this long piece, per Lennon’s framing at 63.2–63.13).
The essay is titled “Norman Mailer versus Nine Writers” on the Esquire table of contents page. The nine writers, in order of Mailer’s consideration, are:
- William Styron
- James Jones
- James Baldwin
- William Burroughs
- Joseph Heller
- John Updike
- Philip Roth
- J. D. Salinger
- Saul Bellow
Mailer also comments on Vance Bourjaily. The essay’s subtitle — Further Evaluations of the Talent in the Room — links it explicitly with Mailer’s 1959 “Quick and Expensive Comments on the Talent in the Room” (59.10) in Advertisements for Myself, which had taken 17 writers (including Jones, Styron, Bellow, and Baldwin) as its subject. The 1963 essay narrows the field, dwells longer on each subject, and takes a more measured (though still combative) tone toward writers Mailer counts as rivals or peers.
“One of Mailer’s finest critical pieces,” per Lennon. Calder Willingham responded in Esquire’s December 1963 issue with “The Way It Isn’t Done: Notes on the Distress of Norman Mailer” (pp. 306–308) — a response that Lennon’s Norman Mailer bibliography (Gale, 1986) calls one of “the best” critical pieces on Mailer through the early 1960s.
The essay would be reprinted in Contemporary American Novelists, edited by Harry T. Moore (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1964); as the second part of “Some Children of the Goddess” (preceded by 63.7) in Cannibals and Christians (66.11); and in 13.1.
Related pages
- 1963 | Esquire | Quick and Expensive Comments on the Talent in the Room | The "Big Bite" | Cannibals and Christians
- The "Big Bite" (63.2) | The "Big Bite" (63.13)