Mailer (Tributes) (Norman Mailer) (In Memoriam‪)‬

THERE ARE PIVOTAL MOMENTS IN LIFE. We all have them. Many of mine revolve around Norman Mailer. We were never great buddies, or even buddies, but every time he made a cameo appearance in my life the experience became vividly recorded in my mind. He had an outrageous influence on me, and I'm sure he never realized its extent. The last time I saw him, at a party after he made a speech, and was lionized, at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania, when he was getting around on two canes. I said, "You know, Norman, you were my great hero before I ever met James Jones. The Naked and the Dead changed my life before I ever heard of From Here to Eternity. Yours came first."