Preface to The Joker (My Friend, Jean Malaquais)
Mailer's preface to the Warner reissue of Jean Malaquais's novel The Joker - a tribute to his friend and mentor of the 1940s and 50s, who translated The Naked and the Dead into French and is the dedicatee of Barbary Shore.
Mailer’s preface (pp. 11–24) to the Warner Paperback “Rediscovery Series” reissue of The Joker, the 1954 novel by Jean Malaquais, published September 1974 in softcover. Malaquais — one of Mailer’s closest friends and his intellectual mentor in the 1940s and 1950s, who translated The Naked and the Dead (48.2) into French and is the dedicatee of Barbary Shore (51.1) — is here repaid with a warm, searching tribute. The preface appeared at almost the same time in Partisan Review as “A Preface to The Joker” (75.5), and was reprinted, without its third part, as “My Friend, Jean Malaquais” in Pieces and Pontifications (82.16). A full transcription (rights cleared) is held at full text.
Related pages
- Jean Malaquais | Barbary Shore (51.1) | The Naked and the Dead (48.2)
- 1974
- A Preface to The Joker (75.5) | Pieces and Pontifications (82.16)