Installment VIII: At the Lion and the Serpent
Eighth and final installment of the An American Dream Esquire serial. The installment is followed by the note: 'This concludes An American Dream. Dial Press will publish it in hardcover form this fall.' In the novel's final version, the concluding (and revised) portion of 64.9 is broken off as 'Epilogue: The Harbors of the Moon Again' — closing the novel with the same title that opened it in 64.2. Per the AAD Expanded Timeline: the final long installment was completed in early June 1964; the Mailers then went to Provincetown where Mailer would revise the Esquire version for book publication.
“Installment VIII: At the Lion and the Serpent.” Esquire, August 1964, 41–43, 94, 96, 98, 100–108. Eighth and final installment of the An American Dream Esquire serial. The installment is followed by this note: “This concludes An American Dream. Dial Press will publish it in hardcover form this fall.”
The Epilogue
In the novel’s final version (the Dial Press first edition, 15 March 1965), the concluding (and revised) portion of 64.9 is broken off as “Epilogue: The Harbors of the Moon Again” — closing the novel with the same title that opened it in 64.2 (which Mailer took from a poem in Deaths for the Ladies 62.3).
Per the An American Dream Expanded Timeline:
- Early June 1964 — the final long installment is completed; the Mailers go to Provincetown where Mailer will revise the Esquire version for book publication.
- Mid-July 1964 — Mailer breaks off work on the revision to cover the Republican Convention in San Francisco. His account, “In the Red Light” (64.20), appears in the November Esquire.
- 20 December 1964 — Working on the Dial Press galleys, Mailer completes a second revision of the novel.
Related pages
- 1964 | Esquire | Installment Seven: A Votive is Prepared | An American Dream: A New Novel Serialized Exclusively in Esquire by Norman Mailer; Installment One: The Harbors of the Moon | An American Dream | Provincetown, Massachusetts
- An American Dream: A New Novel Serialized Exclusively in Esquire by Norman Mailer; Installment One: The Harbors of the Moon (64.2) | An American Dream (65.7)
- Installment VIII: At the Lion and the Serpent (64.9) | Deaths for the Ladies (and Other Disasters) (62.3) | In the Red Light: A History of the Republican Convention in 1964 (64.20)
Referenced by 8
Works
- A Conversation with Mailer
- An American Dream
- An American Dream: A New Novel Serialized Exclusively in Esquire by Norman Mailer; Installment One: The Harbors of the Moon
- An American Dream: Word-Count Comparison, Esquire and Dial Editions
- In the Red Light: A History of the Republican Convention in 1964
- Installment Seven: A Votive is Prepared
- The "Big Bite"