Talk:Willie Morris

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Launching careers

Morris at Harper's most certainly did not help "launch" the careers of Norman Mailer and William Styron. both of whom were prominent and established writers when Morris was still in college. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.221.221.163 (talk) 00:21, 30 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Is this line about Morris launching the career of Norman Mailer supposed to be a joke? The Naked and the Dead was publshed in 1948. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bortz62 (talk • contribs) 16:57, 21 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Did the Cowles family own Harper's at the time of Morris' tenure? The Harper's Magazine Wiki is unclear as to when the Harper's Magazine Foundation started. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.167.118.82 (talk) 17:34, 15 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Willie Morris did help the career of Norman Mailer by assigning Mailer to cover for Harper's the story which eventually became Armies of the Night. He also solicited Harper's pieces from Styron, who was a good friend. Obviously, as has been suggested, both writers had made their mark before Morris appeared on the scene. Interestingly, it was also Morris who helped propel the fledgling career of aspiring writer John Grisham, who audited Morris's course at the University of Mississippi.MarmadukePercy (talk) 22:01, 15 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Why hasn't the comically unfounded remark about Morris's launching the careers of Mailer and Styron been removed? I note that at the moment (November 19, 2023), the link cited as the article's authority for this detail seems to be dead. 108.20.176.234 (talk) 23:37, 19 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Can't stand it anymore so I've decided to address it. The Mississippi Writers Page was the cited source. It had become dormant but is archived here: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/mwp_projects/. I found the article. It's written by Jack Bales: retired university librarian, author of "Willie Morris: An Exhaustive Annotated Bibliography and a Biography", as well as a friend of Willie and his 2nd wife, JoAnne Prichard. Sounds reputable, right? So what gives?

I read the article and this is the only sentence in which William Styron and Norman Mailer appear (in fact, in the archived 423 pages it's the only occurrence of "Norman Mailer"):

"[...] Morris attracted contributions from such well-known writers as William Styron, Robert Penn Warren, Ralph Ellison, Arthur Miller, James Dickey, Walker Percy, and Norman Mailer."

The WP editor either misread the article or read the claim somewhere else. MxBuster (talk) 09:07, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Cleanup needed: "Morris returns home"

Last sentence reads: "...Wille help two Mississippi residence by giving the second chance at sight by being an eye donor..." Not good grammar and name spelled wrong. Seems obvious what author is trying to say, maybe can be re-written as:

"...Willie gave two residents of Mississippi a second chance at sight by being an eye donor, after his passing..." -- or something similar.

--Atikokan (talk) 18:43, 21 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]