Let Me Now Praise Famous Men (Tributes) (Norman Mailer) (In Memoriam‪)‬

IT HAS ONLY HAPPENED TWICE IN MY LIFE: a famous writer to whom I reached out not only responded, but made me his friend and disciple. Both men I admired immensely long before we met. The first, in my teens and young manhood, was Rod Serling. The second, in my more mature professional years, was Norman Mailer. Each was a cultural touchstone of my baby boomer generation. Each had a voice as singular in speaking as it was in print or on the screen. And each, through personal alchemy, turned an ardent fan into a real friend. Both of these friendships lasted until the end of their respective short and long lives and enhanced my own life immeasurably. Both men were innovators. Serling did for the half-hour teleplay what O'Henry did for the short story. Mailer so dazzlingly merged nonfiction into the milieu of the novel, and vice versa, that neither genre has been the same since. And it was these two men, each in his unique way, who inspired and shaped my career as a writer.