The Faith of Graffiti
Mailer's book-length essay on New York graffiti writers, with photographs by Mervyn Kurlansky and Jon Naar, prepared by Lawrence Schiller; published by Praeger (UK title: Watching My Name Go By). 96 pages, mostly photographs.
The Faith of Graffiti — “Documented by Mervyn Kurlansky and Jon Naar. Prepared by Lawrence Schiller. Text by Norman Mailer” — was published as an Alskog Book by Praeger on 7 May 1974, with a simultaneous softcover; the London edition (Mathews, Miller Dunbar) carried the different title Watching My Name Go By. Of its 96 pages, only fifteen are text; the rest are Naar’s photographs of early-1970s New York subway and wall graffiti. There is no dedication. The book reached $14.95.
Mailer’s essay takes the graffiti writers — Cay 161, Junior 161, and the rest — seriously as artists, reading their tags as a guerrilla assertion of name and self against the “Authority imprinted upon emptiness” of the city. The text first appeared, in shorter form, in Esquire the same month (74.8); the complete essay is reprinted in Pieces and Pontifications (82.16) and The Time of Our Time (98.7). The launch party was held 7 May.
Related pages
- “The Faith of Graffiti” (Esquire, 74.8)
- Mervyn Kurlansky | Jon Naar | Lawrence Schiller | 1974
- Pieces and Pontifications (82.16) | The Time of Our Time (98.7)