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Normal Mailer Society
Named afterNorman Mailer
Formation2003
FoundersJ. Michael Lennon, Barry H. Leeds, John Whalen-Bridge, and Robert Lucid
Founded atNew York
TypeLiterary
Registration no.201724164
Legal status501 (c) (3) non-profit organization
PurposeTo stimulate and encourage interest in the works of Norman Mailer.[1]
Membership (2017)
300
President
J. Michael Lennon
Vice President
Maggie McKinley
Treasurer
David Light
Secretary
Marc Triplett
Neil Abercrombie, Robert Begiebing, Philip Bufithis, Christopher Busa, Justin Bozung, Ezra Cappell, Michael Chaiken, Bonnie Culver, Nicole DePolo, Carol Holmes, Gerald Lucas, John Buffalo Mailer, Susan Mailer, Jason Mosser, Mark Olshaker, Denise Pappas, Lawrence Schiller, Lawrence Shainberg, Barbara Wasserman
Websitehttp://normanmailersociety.org

The Norman Mailer Society is a non-profit literary society dedicated to American author Norman Mailer. The Society promotes the legacy of its eponym by holding an annual meeting of scholars and enthusiasts, publishing The Mailer Review, Project Mailer, and The NMS Podcast, awarding the Robert F. Lucid Award for the year's best scholarship, and encouraging continued interest in his work through all forms of media.

History

On July 11, 2002, J. Michael Lennon, Barry H. Leeds, and John Whalen-Bridge met Norman Mailer in Provincetown, Massachusetts to discuss the creation of the organization and gain Mailer's approval.[2] Mailer's biographer Robert Lucid could not attend, but he was one of the original quartet planning the Society. Having received Mailer's blessing, the Norman Mailer Society was officially founded in 2003.[3][4] During the American Literature Association in Cambridge on May 22, 2003, there was a planning meeting and interim officers elected for the Norman Mailer Society.[5] The Society had its inaugural meeting in Brooklyn, November 1, 2003, prompted in part as a reaction to Mailer's being dropped from the sixth edition of The Norton Anthology of American Literature.[6] Ron Rosenbaum, a New York Observer columnist, comments about the creation of the Society: "It's good to recognize people for their service while they're still around to appreciate it."[6]

Norman Mailer and Lawrence Schiller at NMS Conference 2006

Non-profit incorporation papers were filed in the State of New York, July 21, 2004, and were approved on September 14, 2004.[citation needed] The Society was incorporated in Windham, Connecticut in 2008.[7]

Members meet annually for paper presentations, panel discussions, film viewings, and other activities centered around the life and work of Norman Mailer.[1] In 2015, the Society reconvened in Provincetown, MA, for its annual conference, bringing together Society members, two of Mailer's daughters, and a reading of Mailer Tough Guys Don't Dance, Mailer's 1984 novel about his adopted hometown.[8][9] In addition to an annual meeting, the Society undertakes the following activities: the maintaining of a website devoted to matters of interest to the membership, including a newsletter and bibliography updated semi-annually.[1]

While still alive, Norman and Norris hosted Society members at post-conference parties, in 2003 at their house in Brooklyn Heights, and 2004 and 2005 at their Provincetown, MA residence.[10]

The Society is a sponsor of the 50th Anniversary March on the Pentagon that Mailer wrote about in his Pulitzer-Prize-winning book Armies of the Night. Organized by the Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee, the events will take place on October 24, 2017 in Washington D.C.[11]

Publications

During the fourth annual conference in Provincetown (October 12-14, 2006), the membership voted to establish The Mailer Review, co-sponsored by the University of South Florida.[12] The inaugural issue of Review[13] arrived on newsstands on October 18, 2007.[14] Dwight Garner called it a "fascinating testament to Mailer's headlong life."[14]

Created and hosted by Society member Justin Bozung, The Norman Mailer Society Podcast had its premiere episode in February 2015.[15] The Podcast is released twice monthly and features rare audio, interviews, analysis, and discussions about, as James Wolcott put it, the "wooly-bully exploits" of Norman Mailer.[16]

Robert F. Lucid Award

In 2003, the Society established The Robert F. Lucid Award for Mailer Studies in recognition of Lucid's long and distinguished career as a Mailer scholar. The Lucid Award is given annually based on the recommendation of a Society committee. The winner receives a plaque and a $250 honorarium, and he or she is invited to speak at the conference.[17] Recent winners include Kevin Schultz for Buckley and Mailer: The Difficult Friendship that Shaped the Sixties in 2015,[18] J. Michael Lennon for The Selected Letters of Norman Mailer in 2014,[19] and J. Michael Lennon for Norman Mailer: A Double Life in 2013.[20]

Members

Society membership is open to all who share an interest in the Society's eponym.[1] The Society consists of officers, an Executive Board, and general members from diverse backgrounds. They range from enthusiasts, academics, creatives, and politicians to family members and contemporaries of Mailer's. As of 2017, the Society has approximately 300 international members.[21]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d "NMS By-Laws". Norman Mailer Society. 2010. Retrieved September 9, 2017.
  2. ^ Leeds, Barry H. (2008). "The Death of Norman Mailer: The Birth of the Norman Mailer Society". The Mailer Review. 2 (1): 135–37. Retrieved March 20, 2017.
  3. ^ Wolcott, James (June 2010). "The Norman Conquests". Vanity Fair. Retrieved April 12, 2017.
  4. ^ Light, David (2008). "From a Novelist in Waiting". The Mailer Review. 2 (1): 144–45. Retrieved September 9, 2017.
  5. ^ Lennon, J. Michael (May 22, 2003). "Minutes of the First Meeting of the Norman Mailer Society". NormanMailer.us. Project Mailer. Retrieved March 20, 2017.
  6. ^ a b Lee, Flora (November 9, 2003). "Another Advertisement for Mailer". The New York Times. Retrieved April 10, 2017.
  7. ^ "Norman Mailer Society in Windham, Connecticut (CT)". Nonprofit Facts. 2008. Retrieved September 9, 2017.
  8. ^ Wood, Ann (September 25, 2015). "Mailer Society Brings 'Tough Guys' Home". Barnstable Patriot. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
  9. ^ "P-town Hosts Mailer Conference". Boston Globe. New England Literary News. September 27, 2015.
  10. ^ Lennon, J. Michael; Lennon, Donna Pedro (April 12, 2016). Lucas, Gerald R. (ed.). "2003". Norman Mailer: Works & Days. Project Mailer. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
  11. ^ "October 20-21 Event: From Protest to Resistance". Vietnam Peace Commemoration Committee. 2017. Retrieved August 30, 2017.
  12. ^ The Norman Mailer Society. "A New Journal for Mailer Studies". May 18, 2007. Accessed March 2017.
  13. ^ The Mailer Review Website. Medium. Accessed March 2017.
  14. ^ a b Dwight Garner. "The Mailer Review". ArtsBeat in New York Times Oct. 18, 2007. Accessed March 2017.
  15. ^ "The Norman Mailer Society Podcast". Apple iTunes. Project Mailer.
  16. ^ Wolcott, James (February 2016). "So, Like, Why Are We So Obsessed with Podcasts Right Now?". Vanity Fair. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
  17. ^ Lennon, J. Michael (November 27, 2003). "To the Charter Members". NormanMailer.us. Project Mailer. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
  18. ^ Flood, Brian (February 27, 2017). "Historian Honored for 'Buckley and Mailer'" (Press release). UIC Today. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
  19. ^ Lennon, J. Michael (2014). "Awards and Honors". J. Michael Lennon. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
  20. ^ "Robert F. Lucid Award for Mailer Studies". NormanMailer.us. Norman Mailer Society. 2017. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
  21. ^ The Norman Mailer Society Web Site. Accessed March 2017.


Category:Arts organizations established in 2004

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