| description | Handwritten and typed manuscripts, galley proofs, screenplays, correspondence, research materials and notes, legal, business, and financial records, photographs, audio and video recordings, books, magazines, clippings, scrapbooks, electronic records, drawings, and awards document the life, work, and family of Norman Mailer from the early 1900s to 2006. |
| access | Open for research with the exception of some restricted materials. Any active financial records, telephone numbers, email addresses for Mailer's family members remain closed. Social Security numbers, medical records, and educational records for all living individuals are also restricted. When possible, documents containing restricted information have been replaced with redacted photocopies.
Researchers must create an online Research Account and agree to the Materials Use Policy before using archival materials.
To request access to electronic files, please email Reference. |
| acquisition information | Early in his career, Mailer typed his own works and handled his correspondence with the help of his sister, Barbara. After the publication of The Deer Park in 1955, he began to rely on hired typists and secretaries to assist with his growing output of works and letters. Among the women who worked for Mailer over the years, Anne Barry, Madeline Belkin, Suzanne Nye, Sandra Charlebois Smith, Carolyn Mason, and Molly Cook particularly influenced the organization and arrangement of his records.
The genesis of the Mailer archive was in 1968 when Mailer's mother, Fanny Schneider Mailer, and his friend and biographer, Dr. Robert Lucid, transferred papers from Mrs. Mailer's Brooklyn apartment and the basement of his residence at 142 Columbia Heights to the Day & Meyer, Murray & Young records storage facility in New York. Lucid organized and maintained the records, retrieving additional papers from Mailer's Brooklyn office and Provincetown home, and adding new materials in subsequent years as they were retired by Mailer.
Beginning with The Executioner's Song in 1978, Judith McNally served as interviewer, editor, researcher, organizer, correspondence secretary, and general assistant for Mailer. As Mailer's typist, McNally created and maintained all of the electronic records found in the archive. By the late 1980s, manuscript drafts, transcripts of interviews, and correspondence were all generated by McNally using word processing software on her home computer.
Also in 1978, Dr. J. Michael Lennon began assisting Dr. Lucid with the growing archive. In addition to retrieving new material created by Mailer, Lennon incorporated business files from Mailer's literary agent Scott Meredith and legal files from Mailer's cousin and long-time legal representative Charles" Cy "Rembar.
Once placed in the archive, the papers did not remain dormant. Mailer, on occasion, retrieved materials for further use, and Dr. Lennon and Dr. Lucid made extensive use of the papers for their own work. Dr. Lucid identified the contents of many files dating from the 1940s and 1950s, writing notes and descriptions on the folders. Photocopies of these original folders remain with the materials to preserve Dr. Lucid's information. Additional biographical notes and drafts by Lucid are located in Series V. Works by Others, as are large amounts of Dr. Lennon's Mailer-related notes and manuscripts.
Lennon transferred the records to Diversified Information Technologies in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, in 1994, and with the assistance of his wife, Donna, served as Mailer's chief archivist until the materials arrived at the Ransom Center in 2005. Mailer sent additional materials to the Ransom Center in the subsequent years, and further materials are expected.
Judith McNally was in the process of transferring her Mailer-related computer disks and files to the Ransom Center at the time of her sudden death in May 2006. With no will or living relatives, all materials in McNally's possession were seized by the Kings County Surrogate Court in Brooklyn, New York. After several months, McNally's three laptop computers and numerous computer disks were released to the Ransom Center |
