June 21, 2024

Friday

The reading room is always less busy on Friday. Yesterday, it was pretty packed about this time, 10:30, but today, I am only one of three researchers. I am eager to start the weekend, but I may have to do a late-night interview about Lipton’s. More on that if it happens.

Box 526 contains correspondence from 1952. Most of the letters that mention short fiction are from early in the year. This makes sense, as he wrote several short stories late in 1951 and perhaps early 1952 before he began work in earnest on The Deer Park. Most of Mailer’s mentions of short fiction tend to downplay its importance and even his own abilities to write them effectively, like this excerpt:

“ I do have a three page thing which is rather horrible, and was written one day in Hollywood when I felt I had to spew it out or else drown in its awful juices, but whether it’s any good or not, I have no idea. It’s probably horrible. Anyway, I'll look it over, and 1f it's not completely impossible, I’ll send it to you for a look. I do thank you for your invitation to contribute. ” — May 27, 1952 letter to Sheldon Rodman

In another letter to Bob Lindner, Mailer mentions his publication of “The Language of Men”:

“ Incidentally, if you should run across the April issue of Esquire which I think is out now, I have a story in it. I don’t know whether I like it much or not, but a young analyst I know, Ted Branfman, who’s very impressed with Bergler—which I an not—kept clucking his tongue over it, and saying things like “The milk-feeding cycle, I tell you, it’s all there, I don’t know why you’re not a Berglerian.” ” — March 7, 1952

In addition, there’s an exchange between Mailer and his Japanese translator Eiichi Yaminishi about publishing some of the former’s “war stories.” I know this happened in the sixties, but was unaware that any were published in Japan before that. “The Paper House” apparently made it in 1952.

Not much from 1953, I’m afraid. There’s some good stuff, but very little about short fiction. There is this bit in an October 20 letter to Mr. Cape:

“ I had an amusing experience with a story of mine called “The Notebook.” Graham got it placed in The Cornhill Magazine, and to my surprise, I saw a review the other day in The Times Literary Supplement. It was most laudatory, indeed embarrassing, and the humor was that the review must have been virtually as long as the story which occupied three pages. Well, one finds one’s praise around the most unexpected corners. ”