The Prisoner of Sex
Mailer's 50,000-word analysis of the Women's Liberation movement, occupying almost the entire March 1971 Harper's as a cover story; it sold out in nine days and helped precipitate the resignation of editor Willie Morris. Revised the same year into the book of the same title.
“The Prisoner of Sex” is Mailer’s roughly 50,000-word response to the Women’s Liberation movement — and to Kate Millett’s reading of him in Sexual Politics (1970) — published as the cover story of Harper’s for March 1971, where it occupies almost the entire issue. The number sold out in nine days. Its prominence and content displeased the magazine’s owners and were contributory to the resignation of editor Willie Morris, and to Mailer’s own break with Harper’s (see “Morris Resigns in Harper’s Dispute,” 71.11; “Mailer Tells Harper’s — Me, Too,” 71.12; “Hang-Up at Harper’s,” 71.13; and 71.21).
The essay was revised later in the year into the book The Prisoner of Sex (71.20). Its closing movement, an extended appreciation of D. H. Lawrence, became what Lennon calls Mailer’s most thoughtful literary criticism. A full transcription (rights cleared) is held at full text.
Related pages
- The Prisoner of Sex (book, 71.20)
- “Morris Resigns in Harper’s Dispute” (71.11) and the Morris cluster (71.12, 71.13, 71.21)
- The Town Hall dialogue: 71.16 and 71.17-71.19, 71.23; Greer’s “My Mailer Problem” (71.27)
- Harper's Magazine | Willie Morris | 1971