June 6, 2024

Research Day 1

I spent the last four hours combing through the first four boxes of the Mailer archive at the Harry Ransom Center. After a 1.5 mile walk to campus—nice, but a bit hot—I procured my university ID and checked in to the Ransom Center. I met Danika who showed me to my office and gave me an introduction tot he facilities. I was eager to get to work, so I checked into the reading room on the second floor and requested m y first boxes. There were only a few researchers there, so my first five boxes were delivered tout de suite.

The first page of a notebook containing ideas and sketches for the story that would eventually become “A Calculus at Heaven.”

Here’s what I got today. Box five is from Norman Mailer’s days at Harvard, and contained quite a bit of good stuff—most of which I haven’t seen before. These are listed in order of how they’re archived.

• “A Clean Well-Ordered Life.” A short story, dated fall 1941, written for his English A-2 class. It earned him an A- and the comment “The title is, of course, with apologies to Mr. Hemingway.” 6 pp.
• “The Worms that Tear at Me.” Another story, dated fall 1941, written for his English A-2 class; 4 pp. The feedback is harsh, beginning with “This is not a short story.” He received a C.
• “The Schedule Breaker.” Dated Dec. 5, 1941 (4 pp.), this story was also written for A-2 and contains just a simple “A.” I guess he got better as the semester went along.
• “Right Shoe on Left Foot.” This story was completed on January 10, 1942 and published in The Harvard Advocate that same year in May, volume 128, number 5. This is a story I had heard about, but based on its controversial nature, I have not been able to find. I’m looking forward to reading it. I have both the Advocate copy (pp. 12–18, 31–33) and the manuscript (29 pp.).
• “Three Fingers of Friendship.” Dated January 30 through February 3, 1942, 5 pp.; rewritten Feb. 8. An included note reads “After Pearl Harbor.”
• “Retreat” is dated February 18, 1942, yet signed ’43 on the final page. The title page is covered in feedback that addresses making the readers sympathize with the characters as much as Mailer does. 13 pp.
• “Charde and Dana” is dated March 3, 1942, for English A-3; 17 pp.
• “Land Lashed” is dated April 1, 1942; 10 pp.
• “Small Fry” appears to be a draft, dated April 3, 1942; 3 pp.
• “Music Teachers I Have Known and Loved” might be an autobiographical vignette, “Spring 1942,” 7 pp.
• “Maybe Next Year” is labeled as a “Horror Tale: Outmoded”; dated March 9, 1942; 7 pp. This story was published in the Advocate, June 1942, pp. 25–27.

Box 8 contained one item of interest:

• “The Lock” is a 2-page fragment, dated July 1942.

Box 10

• An untitled treatment that might be called “Yiddish on the Train,” dated February 26, 1943; 5 pp.
• “Tough Test” is another hand-written fragment, undated, but ca. 1943; 3 pp.

That’s what I found looking through five boxes today. I will detail these more as I read them. Also, maybe I was given these out of order, but I seem to be missing “The Greatest Thing in the World” from 1941.