Harry Ransom CenterThe University of Texas at Austin

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Playboy Enterprises:
Norman Mailer Files, 1962-1979
Preliminary Inventory

1 box, 1 galley folder (.42 linear feet)

Note: This brief collection description is an accession record. The collection is not fully processed or cataloged; no biographical sketch, descriptions of series, or indexes are available.
Acquisition: Purchase, 2005 (R15392)
Access: Open for research
Processed by: Jessica Rice, Stephen Mielke, 2005
RLIN Record ID: None


Table of Contents

Scope and Contents
Folder List

Scope and Contents

Purchased from the December 17, 2004, Christie's New York auction "Playboy at 50: Selections from the Archives," Playboy's Norman Mailer files date from 1962 to 1979 and document three separate exchanges between Mailer and Playboy.

The first group of materials consists of one folder of correspondence between Mailer, Hugh Hefner, and editorial director A. C. Spectorsky regarding Mailer's "The Womanization of America" (Playboy, June 1962) and his stay at the Playboy mansion while covering the Sonny Liston-Floyd Patterson fight on September 2, 1962.

The second group of materials includes two folders of typescript and photocopy drafts, correspondence, and memos concerning "The Crazy One" also titled "A Footnote to Death in the Afternoon" (Playboy, October 1967).

The bulk of the materials, three folders and one galley file, document the three-part serialization of Mailer's The Executioner's Song, which appeared in the October, November, and December 1979 editions of Playboy. Present are internal memos and correspondence between James Morgan, Arthur Kretchmer, Lawrence Dietz, Norman Mailer and other Playboy staff, galley proofs, and typescript drafts.

Materials are in good condition and are generally arranged in chronological order within each folder.


Folder List

Box.Folder	Description

1.1		Correspondence, 1962-1963
1.2-3		"The Crazy One" (also titled "A Footnote to Death in
				the Afternoon"). Typescript and photocopy
				drafts, interoffice memos and notes, 1967
		"The Executioner's Song"
1.4			Typescript photocopies, 1979
1.5*			Page proofs and galley proofs, 1979 (* galleys
					removed to galley folder)
1.6			Correspondence, interoffice memos and notes,
					photocopy draft fragments, and photo
					layouts, 1979



Playboy Enterprises: Norman Mailer Files Finding Aid
(Last modified: 20 October 2005 )

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