Word: mailers
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...Manhattan, people are calling it the Rehabilitation of Norman Mailer or, less formally, Norman Goes Legit. Mailer, 62, "embattled aging enfant terrible of the literary world . . . champion of obscenity," as he once called himself, has been remodeling his image--from rebellious to respectable. Throughout the autumn, he acted as an occasional master of ceremonies on a Broadway stage. He spent time sweet-talking the State Department. He rushed to the offices of a real estate magnate to make important deals. He even modified the cut of his clothes to fit his latest fashion. More often than ever, he has been...
...good behavior? Mailer was raising money for what promises to be one of the largest gatherings of literary notables ever held: the 48th Annual Congress of International PEN, an association of poets, playwrights, editors, essayists and novelists, which opens in New York City next week. The London-based association, which has 83 affiliate centers worldwide, is dedicated to fighting censorship and the jailing of writers. Founded in 1921, it takes its inspiration from Walt Whitman, who wrote in 1881: "My dearest dream is for an internationality of poems and poets...
Cost, in fact, was the major sticking point when the PEN American Center, of which Mailer is president, decided 13 months ago to be host of the congress. The center's annual budget is around $500,000. But Mailer had a fund-raising idea as inflated as the self-importance of Manhattan's literary circles: he would stage a series of eight literary evenings, with two writers entertaining each night, and charge $1,000 a subscription. "Even more than the Met!" cried one amused writer, referring to the price of a season ticket to the Metropolitan Opera. Says Mailer...
...series, called the PEN Celebrations, played first at the Booth and later at the Roy ale on Broadway, donated for the purpose by the Shubert Organization. Among the writers who appeared were Joan Didion, Susan Sontag, William Styron, John Updike, Woody Allen and Mailer himself, who agreed to debate sometime Archrival Gore Vidal. Indeed, the Vidal-Mailer matchup was a major draw for the series, and no wonder: their previous encounters have been dramatic, head-butting and drink-throwing affairs. But the latest showdown was disappointing. "A meeting between two toothless tigers," Mailer called...
...Norman Mailer defends his invitation of Secretary of State George Shultz as E.L. Doctorow and Nadine Gordimer counterattack. Germany's Günter Grass squares off against Nobel Laureate Saul Bellow, and some 800 delegates from more than 40 countries try to imagine "The Imagination of the State...