A Rosy Fingered Dawn?

Authors

  • Barry H. Leeds Central Connecticut State University Author

Keywords:

book review, literary legacy, Donald L. Kaufmann, Of a Fire on the Moon, American literary tradition

Abstract

Barry H. Leeds reviews Donald L. Kaufmann’s Norman Mailer: Legacy and Literary Americana (Scholars’ Press), a 501-page study by one of Mailer’s earliest critics. The book asks whether Mailer will have a lasting place in American letters. Leeds praises Kaufmann’s erudition, humor, and broad coverage: the Naturalism of Norris and Dreiser, comparisons with Hemingway and Thomas Paine, Kaufmann’s own adventures with Mailer in Alaska, and a survey of rivals from Bellow and Updike to Oates and Roth. Leeds disagrees with two things. Kaufmann’s top-ten list of Mailer’s books leaves out The Armies of the Night, and his dismissal of Ken Kesey is too harsh. Leeds still finds Kaufmann’s conclusion persuasive: Mailer is “a writer for his age but also for the ages.”

Author Biography

  • Barry H. Leeds, Central Connecticut State University

    Barry H. Leeds is CSU Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at Central Connecticut State University. He is Vice President of The Norman Mailer Society and a member of the Editorial Board of The Mailer Review. His books include The Structured Vision of Norman Mailer (1969), The Enduring Vision of Norman Mailer (2002), and most recently A Moveable Beast (2014), a memoir.

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Published

2026-10-10

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 1 (2014): Future Bound

Section

Book Reviews