Norman Mailer: Poetic Lion in Winter
Gary Shapiro's account of Mailer's reading of his poems, followed by a conversation with J. Michael Lennon, at the 92nd Street Y; Mailer: 'When it comes to poetry, I felt like a high school athlete.'
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Gary Shapiro’s New York Sun account of Mailer’s mid-September reading of his poems, followed by a conversation with J. Michael Lennon, at the 92nd Street Y. On his verse (collected the previous year in Modest Gifts), Mailer said, “When it comes to poetry, I felt like a high school athlete. I wrote my poems and there was no coach out there with a gleam in his eye,” adding that a poem rejected by Poetry had at least drawn a rejection letter that was “nicely written.” Rpt: 13.1.