Better than Happiness

Authors

  • Robert J. Begiebing Southern New Hampshire University Author

Keywords:

The Selected Letters of Norman Mailer, J. Michael Lennon, correspondence, the writing life, women’s liberation, Allen Ginsberg

Abstract

Robert J. Begiebing reviews The Selected Letters of Norman Mailer, edited by J. Michael Lennon (Random House), an 867-page selection of 716 letters that he calls indispensable for scholars. Begiebing highlights Mailer’s wartime letters to Beatrice Silverman that fed The Naked and the Dead, his self-analysis in letters to Robert Lindner and Diana Trilling, his advice to writers, his humor, and his courage, as in his tribute to Allen Ginsberg. He notes that the letters reveal more nuance on women than Mailer’s public quarrel with women’s liberation, and he faults the publisher for unkeyed endnotes.

Author Biography

  • Robert J. Begiebing, Southern New Hampshire University

    Robert J. Begiebing is Professor of English Emeritus at Southern New Hampshire University and the author of nine books (including criticism, fiction, and nonfiction) and many articles. His most recent book, “The Territory Around Us: Literary and Political Journalism, 1982–2015,” will be published in the fall of 2015. He is on the board of the Norman Mailer Society.

Downloads

Published

2015-09-30

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 1 (2015): Maestro

Section

Book Reviews

How to Cite

Begiebing, Robert J. “Better Than Happiness”. The Mailer Review, vol. 9, no. 1, Sept. 2015, pp. 297–303, https://mailerreview.org/journal/article/view/530.