Norman Mailer: Works and Days

Expletive Restored

A Village Voice piece in which Mailer imagines, with bravura, what the unedited transcripts of the frank talk of Johnson, Kennedy, and Truman would sound like.

“Expletive Restored,” in the Village Voice (13 June 1974) — Mailer imagines, “with great bravura,” what the unedited transcripts of the frank talk of three presidents (Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Harry S. Truman) would sound like, a riposte to the “expletive deleted” Nixon transcripts.

First published: 1974-06-13
Form: essay
Lennon & Lennon: 74.13
Cite as: /works/1974-06-13-expletive-restored
Last updated: 2026-06-04