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Mailer's Final Gift
“Tina,” I said to Brown, the former editor of The New Yorker, whom I had written for, “I need a lot of advice; for me, these are uncharted waters.”
It all started to come together. The vision of the Colony was to keep alive the endangered serious writer; it would bring writers together for workshops, seminars, lectures, readings, and conferences; provide a space for individual growth; offer fellowships, stipends, and scholarships for those in need; reach out to the community and make visiting writers available to schools and organizations; and offer residencies for visiting professionals. I invited educators and noted writers to be on the faculty, and everyone stepped up to the plate. Norman had left his mark on the literary world, and now, in an outpouring, many of its members were there for him.
In the following months, the Colony, in partnership with the National Council of Teachers of English, established a series of national writing awards open to all high-school, college, and university students to encourage the passion, skill, and commitment that Norman exhibited during his 60-year writing career.
Last year, Norris held a reception at the house to introduce me to those of her and Norman’s friends whom I didn’t know. More than 100 people attended. We talked about Norman and his work. We talked about the coming election and how the country might change if Barack Obama, another literary man, was elected president.
The next step for me is to present The Norman Mailer Writers Colony to students and writers of all ages and call for applications. I know that if the first step was hard, every subsequent step might get gradually harder.
For more information about The Norman Mailer Writers Colony, visit www.nmwcolony.org.
Lawrence Schiller began his career as a photojournalist for Life magazine and the Saturday Evening Post. He has published numerous books, including W. Eugene Smith's Minamata and Norman Mailer's Marilyn. He collaborated with Albert Goldman on Ladies and Gentleman, Lenny Bruce, and with Norman Mailer on The Executioner's Song and Oswald's Tale. He has also directed seven motion pictures and miniseries for television; The Executioner's Song and Peter the Great won five Emmys.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
The Man Who Saw Everything
Lawrence Schiller began his career as a photojournalist for Life magazine and the Saturday Evening Post. He has published numerous books, including W. Eugene Smith's Minamata and Norman Mailer's Marilyn. He collaborated with Albert Goldman on Ladies and Gentleman, Lenny Bruce, and with Norman Mailer on The Executioner's Song and Oswald's Tale. He has also directed seven motion pictures and miniseries for television; The Executioner's Song and Peter the Great won five Emmys.
Thanks for this story. I'm wondering if you were one of his cohorts on the train with him the day I met him?
I wrote about it here:
http://southerner.net/blog/2007/11/17/norman-mailer-dies-at-84/
Here's a better link:
On A Personal Encounter With Norman Mailer
No, that didn't work. How about this?
http://blog.locustfork.net/2007/11/10/norman-mailer-d/
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
I thought it was such a wonderful idea when I first read about it six weeks ago that I have already applied.
A fine piece of writing by Schiller, who salutes Mailer beautifully. The help that N.M. provided to the young nurse/writer is one of the best anecdotes I have heard about a man who filled his life with encounters that were funny and peculiar and generous.
On top of this, it's very much the case that we needed another writer's colony, particularly one that's not attached to stupid academic agendas.
L'chaim, Norman.
Thank you.
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