Tired of ads? Subscribers enjoy a distraction-free reading experience.
Click here to subscribe today or Login.

Monday, November 09, 1992     Page: 1C/3C QUICK WORDS: MAILER

NORMAN MAILER
   
*************
    FILE PHOTO
   
Norman Maile
   
*************
   
Panel, exhibit pave the way for author’s visit
   
By GEORGE SMITH
   
Times Leader Staff Writer ilkes University is bracing for “An Evening with
Norman Mailer” on Nov. 19 by hosting a panel discussion Wednesday on Mailer’s
work, life and times.
   
The controversial Mailer is one of the nation’s top authors. He was awarded
the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1969 for his book “Armies of
the Night.” A second Pulitzer was awarded for “The Executioner’s Song,”
published in 1979.
   
The panel discussion — which will be open to the public — will be held at
7 p.m. Wednesday at the Wilkes University Eugene S. Farley Library,
Wilkes-Barre. An open, informal discussion of Mailer and his work will
immediately follow.
   
In addition, a Norman Mailer exhibit is currently on the display at the
Wilkes library through Nov. 19.
   
The exhibit features gallery posters, hand-written manuscripts, first
editions of his works, film scripts and photographs of the 69-year-old Mailer
that reflect the rich diversity of his journalistic, literary and political
life and work.
   
Also on display are a selection of magazines featuring Mailer on their
covers. Saturday Review, Newsweek, Life, Time, Esquire and the New York Times
Magazine all have focused on Mailer and his work.
   
“You name it. There will be everything at the exhibit including first
editions, posters, political campaign buttons and original manuscripts,” said
Dr. J. Michael Lennon, a Norman Mailer scholar and Wilkes University’s vice
president of academic affairs. “There will be eight separate display cases and
all of the displays will ask the question, `Will the real Norman Mailer please
stand up?’
   
“The displays will reflect Mailer the writer, Mailer the politician, Mailer
the filmmaker and Mailer the family man. When Mailer appears at the (Dorothy
Dickson) Darte Center Nov. 19, the exhibit will be moved there. People will be
able to browse through it while they are waiting to hear Mailer speak, or
while they are waiting to have a book autographed. There will be some really
interesting items on display. We have his mother’s and father’s scrapbook from
when `The Naked and the Dead’ was published, for instance.”
   
Lennon, who has edited three books dealing with Mailer and his work, will
be one of Wednesday’s panelists. He intends to construct a portrait of Mailer
based on the author’s philosophies and myriad interests.
   
Other panelists will include Dr. Patricia Heaman, Dr. Bonnie Bedford, Larry
Kuhar and Tracy Youells. All the panelists are affiliated with Wilkes
University.
   
Mailer has authored 27 books in a long, furious literary career that has
spanned 50 years. His short story, “The Greatest Thing in the World,” was
published in The Harvard Advocate in 1941; Mailer’s most recent novel, the
lengthy “Harlot’s Ghost” published in 1991, is concerned with the moral
integrity of the CIA.
   
Mailer recently completed a book on Pablo Picasso, which is awaiting
publication.