Long Legs, The American Tolstoy, Oswald and the KGB: a Conversation with Lawrence Schiller (Lee Harvey Oswald) (Interview‪)‬

The editor of The Mailer Review asked me to continue the series of conversations begun with Lawrence Schiller on his literary collaboration with Mailer, which extended over three decades. Schiller's conversation with Jeffrey Severs focused on The Executioner's Song (1979)--from conception to the Emmy-winning television mini-series (1982). My assignment was to interview Schiller concerning his foundational work on Oswald's Tale (1995) with a focus on the successful effort to obtain access to the long-sealed KGB records of Lee Harvey Oswald's time in Moscow and Minsk. Schiller graciously agreed to discuss the project and we met twice, once at his home in Woodland Hills California on September 18,200, and on June 7, 2009 at the Mailer home in Provincetown, now the headquarters of The Mailer Writers Colony. Our discussion ranged over the entire project, from Schiller's earlier Russian contacts made during the filming of his 1986 NBC mini-series, Peter the Great, through the complicated and exhausting negotiations with the KGB, the interviews Mailer and Schiller had with Marina Oswald after they returned, and ending with an assessment of the final work and its place in Mailer's literary legacy. Schiller and I tightened and organized the transcript of our talks, adding and correcting details but the final version, which follows, is generally faithful to the original conversations. Lennon: I'm visiting Lawrence Schiller at his home in Woodland Hills, California on September 18, 2008. I'd like to talk today with you about Oswald's Tale, a book that you were deeply involved in. Can you give me the circumstances about your contacts with people in Russia that convinced you could get all those hidden KGB files dealing with Oswald?