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Larger than life, room-filling, a writer self-compared to Hemingway (but not quite as gifted), macho (he was a boxer), leftist mostly, Mailer stabbed his 2nd wife almost to death, caused the death of a New York playwright by convincing The Establishment to release Jack Abbott (who killed again), but admirable in the sense he could Write. And Write he did, up until his death.

His latest novel (I haven't read it; still waiting for to find it at a yard sale or ex-ex libris) concerns Hitler's youth. As directed by the Devil (maybe not old Screwtape himself, but a minor player).

Can't let his passing go unmentioned...he was, like Vonnegut, a Character barely held in check by Time.

And, a star-studded enemy's list. One of those...

Gore Vidal
Crime: Comparing “The Prisoner of Sex” to “three days of menstrual flow” and Mailer to Charles Manson.

Action taken: Head-butting him in the green room of The Dick Cavett Show in 1971, then telling him, on-air, that he ruined Kerouac by sleeping with him. Six years later, he threw a drink at Vidal—and punched him—at a Lally Weymouth soirée.

Blowback: Still on the floor, Vidal said, “Words fail Norman Mailer yet again.” Days later, Vidal went on Cavett’s show to assert that Mailer had—literally—stabbed his second wife in the back. They, too, reconciled in 1985.

Anyone who would do that to an enemy can't be all that bad, now can they?

And this, said about an asian female critic: “Kakutani is a one-woman kamikaze. She disdains white male authors, and I’m her number-one favorite target … But the Times editors can’t fire her. They’re terrified of her. With discrimination rules and such, well, she’s a threefer … Asiatic, feminist, and ah, what’s the third? Well … let’s just call her a twofer … She is a token. And deep down, she probably knows it.” Not so bad. But he had a lot of that for Bush as well...if you have time, listen to this podcast. From March, just 8 months ago. It's on NPR's Open Source, so hold your nose.

So, Norman, here's to you...

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Thanks, Dan, for your initial post, or I wouldn't have paid any attention.. And the follow-up...