Norman Mailer and J. Michael Lennon: A Tale of Writer and Editor

Wilkes University Archives kickstarts the official Archives and Special Collections blog with a post about the recent exhibit, titled Norman Mailer and J. Michael Lennon: A Tale of Writer and Editor, created by Suzanna Calev, Wilkes University Archivist and Public Services Librarian, for the Norman Mailer Society Conference in October, 2019. Suzanna processed the J. Michael Lennon collection of Norman Mailer manuscripts in May-June 2019.

Norman Mailer and J. Michael Lennon: A Tale of Writer and Editor examines the editing process between writer, Norman Mailer, and his editor, biographer, and long-time friend, J. Michael Lennon. In today’s literary world, many would argue that editing is becoming a lost art. Blake Morrison, English poet and author, reflects in an essay, “Black Day for the Blue Pencil,” “Perhaps I’ve been unusually lucky, but in my experience, editors, far from coercing and squashing writers, do exactly the opposite, elucidating them and drawing them out, or, when they’re exhausted and on the point of giving up (like marathon runners hitting the wall), coaxing them to go the extra mile.”[1]

That is just what we see in the manuscripts that Lennon donated to the Wilkes University Archives in the Spring of 2019. The manuscripts cover almost thirty years, from the late 70s, with Pieces and Pontifications (1982), which Lennon edited, up to his biography Norman Mailer: A Double Life, which was published in 2013, six years after Mailer’s death. These manuscripts and correspondence reveal the behind-the-scenes process of editing Mailer’s fiction, nonfiction, and interviews, and reveal the working relationship and friendship between the two. Wilkes University Archives invites you to examine selected excerpts from the 10 cubic feet of material Lennon has donated. These documents highlight the role that an editor plays as critic, cheerleader, researcher and friend.