Vol. 14 No. 1 (2020)
Volume 14 of The Mailer Review (Fall 2020) brings together new scholarship, interviews, archival materials, and creative work that collectively underscore the continuing vitality of Norman Mailer studies. The issue opens with reflections by editor Phillip Sipiora and includes memorial tributes honoring Beverly Bentley and Christopher Busa, two figures central to Mailer’s personal and publishing worlds.
Major scholarly essays extend the journal’s ongoing project of situating Mailer within broader literary and intellectual traditions. Robert J. Begiebing examines Lipton’s Journal alongside Ralph Waldo Emerson’s journals, while Raymond M. Vince explores Mailer’s engagement with Joseph Conrad through questions of tradition, narrative, and modernity. Additional essays address Mailer’s critical relationship with Mary McCarthy, his engagement with noir aesthetics in Tough Guys Don’t Dance, and the ethical and imaginative dimensions of his work across genres.
Volume 14 is especially rich in interviews and primary materials, featuring conversations with Norman Mailer conducted by Legs McNeil and J. Michael Lennon, as well as Sipiora’s extended interview with Maggie McKinley on her scholarly life. The issue also includes Mailer’s Wilkes University commencement address and an updated installment of Norman Mailer: Works and Days, continuing the journal’s commitment to documentary scholarship.
Rounding out the volume are classic interpretations, book reviews, and creative works that reflect Mailer’s enduring influence on contemporary writers and critics. Taken together, Volume 14 exemplifies The Mailer Review’s dual mission: to advance rigorous critical inquiry while preserving and contextualizing the living archive of Mailer’s life, work, and legacy.
