PPA Press Conference
An account of a series of press conferences with authors of new books during National Book Awards Week; Mailer's comments deal with the "moral nihilists' wing" of current writers, including himself, Burroughs, Ginsberg, and Terry Southern, and with his new novel.
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An account of a series of press conferences with authors of new books during National Book Awards Week, held on Wednesday, 10 March 1965 at the Advertising Club of New York, with Peter S. Jennison moderating; the other two authors were Samuel Eliot Morison and William Bradford Huie. Mailer’s comments deal with the “moral nihilists’ wing” of current writers — including himself, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Terry Southern (“we are the ones who are doing something new, more creative and adventurous”) — and with his new novel, An American Dream (65.7), which he said was “substantially complete as originally written for Esquire” but reworked “for style and toning” into “a better book.” Opening candidly — “Four years ago my life went out of control for a time” — he disavowed his past obscenity-hurling (“I thought I had God’s message at the time — but, looking back, I regret it”), defined moral nihilism (“I believe there is a God and a devil… Morality is the battlefield”), and closed on success and James Jones: “God damn it, Norman, I’m becoming an officer.” His comment on Saul Bellow’s Herzog is quoted on pp. 30–31.
The full text is held in the working archive at full text (rights pending), rights: REQUEST-NEEDED pending clearance.
Related pages
- 1965 | An American Dream | Authors Discuss Sick Book Trend
- Authors Discuss Sick Book Trend (65.4) | The Week in Books (14 March 1965) (65.6) | "Four Years Ago My Life Went Out of Control" (65.8)