Norman Mailer: Works and Days

The Rich, Famous, Talented and Powerful Resolve...

Deirdre Carmody's New Year's New York Times feature in which notables give their objectives for the coming year; Mailer's reply: 'To work on a novel.... Just those five words, to work on a novel.'

“The Rich, Famous, Talented and Powerful Resolve … ,” an article-interview by Deirdre Carmody in the New York Times (1 January 1974), gathering New Year’s objectives from a dozen-odd notables — Senator Sam Ervin, David Rockefeller, Ralph Nader, Julia Child, and others. Mailer’s full reply, on the novel that would become Ancient Evenings (83.18): “To work on a novel … . Just those five words, to work on a novel.”

First published: 1974-01-01
Form: article-interview
Lennon & Lennon: 74.1
Cite as: /works/1974-01-01-rich-famous-talented-resolve
Last updated: 2026-06-04