“Composed as a device for private self-analysis and personal transformation at a time of crisis in Mailer’s life, Lipton’s, A Marijuana Journal reveals the sources of Mailer’s public persona, his baroque fluencies, and his themes after the early 1950s. The raw, archival version of this document can be at times embarrassingly revelatory, opaque, and repetitious. But the three editors of this excellent published edition, without censoring Mailer, have created a text that makes widely available the seedbed of all Mailer’s work since 1955—a text that anyone embarking on a serious reading or study of Mailer can't afford to avoid.”
—Robert J. Begiebing, author of Norman Mailer at 100: Conversations, Correlations, Confrontations
“Proust said that certain Jews could be both prophet and boor. Mailer amended this description (consciously or not) into prophet and psychopath. Shrewdly edited by J. Michael Lennon, Gerald R. Lucas, and Susan Mailer, Lipton’s, A Marijuana Journal offers an abundance of early Mailer soulfulness and introspection: his revisionist ideas of Freudian psychology; his obsession with orgy and murder; his willingness to take every idea to its end; and, for all his fervent explorations, his fundamental logic and artistic responsibility. An important addition to the Mailer canon.”
—David Denby, author of Great Books
“Lipton's, A Marijuana Journal offers a rare kind of privileged insight: unprecedented and illuminating access into the psyche of one of America's most complicated and controversial authors during a tortured and formative time in his life. Essential reading for anyone interested in Mailer, or in the workings of an original mind in the throes of experimentation.”
—Maggie McKinley, editor of Norman Mailer in Context: 34 Essays
“This long-awaited volume, edited by Mailer biographer J. Michael Lennon, Mailer scholar Gerald R. Lucas, and Mailer’s daughter, psychoanalyst Susan Mailer, offers deep insight into the life and thought of a major American writer during a formative period in his life, the 1950s. The editors have done a masterful job of sifting through entries in Mailer’s typed manuscript. The authoritative introduction and the extensive endnotes contextualize Mailer’s exploration of the struggle between his social and instinctual selves. A special feature is the inclusion of correspondence between Mailer and friend psychologist Robert Lindner, author of Rebel without a Cause. Lipton’s, A Marijuana Journal represents an invaluable contribution to the future of Mailer Studies.”
—Jason Mosser, author of The Participatory Journalism of Michael Herr, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson, and Joan Didion: Creating New Reporting Styles
Lipton's, A Marijuana Journal
1954-1955
