Lipton’s Journal

Mailer’s Quest for Wholeness and Renewal

Authors

  • Robert J. Begiebing Southern New Hampshire University Author

Keywords:

Lipton’s Journal, self-analysis, Carl Jung, jazz, artistic renewal, Robert Lindner

Abstract

Norman Mailer kept a journal of self-analysis for approximately four months in the mid-1950s. This record was called the Lipton’s Journal. It took a Jungian approach to analyze Mailer’s life and work and the ways in which they might be modified. Further, it records his discovery of jazz as an important pathway to artistic renewal. Mailer’s self-analysis through Lipton’s Journal was transformational and foundational and it would become the key to all his future work, beginning in the 1960s. Reading the journal, we witness both the how and the why of Mailer’s personal transformation.

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, was published in 2015. He is on the board of the Norman Mailer Society.

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Published

2018-10-25

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 1 (2018)

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Begiebing, Robert J. “Lipton’s Journal: Mailer’s Quest for Wholeness and Renewal”. The Mailer Review, vol. 12, no. 1, Oct. 2018, pp. 51–71, https://mailerreview.org/journal/article/view/644.