The Morning After
Mailer's New York Times Book Review essay responding in part to John Leonard's 'Happy Birthday, Norman Mailer!'; he ruminates on conspiracy as a question of government and admits he botched the introduction of the Fifth Estate.
“The Morning After,” an essay in the New York Times Book Review (11 March 1973), Mailer’s reply in part to John Leonard‘s 18 February Book Review essay “Happy Birthday, Norman Mailer!” Mailer ruminates on “a fundamental question of government: Is our history developing into a string of connected conspiracies?” and admits that he failed to introduce his idea of The Fifth Estate properly at his fiftieth-birthday party.