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The Presidential Papers
nonfiction,opens with a special preface to the Bantam edition by Norman Mailer,same text as orginal hard cover,Mailer delivers twelve papers on life in the sixties under JFK with appendix A,B and C
Paperback
First published January 1, 1960
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About the author
Norman Mailer
345 books1,422 followersNorman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.
Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, and Tom Wolfe, Mailer is considered an innovator of creative nonfiction, a genre sometimes called New Journalism, but which covers the essay to the nonfiction novel. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize twice and the National Book Award once. In 1955, Mailer, together with Ed Fancher and Dan Wolf, first published The Village Voice, which began as an arts- and politics-oriented weekly newspaper initially distributed in Greenwich Village. In 2005, he won the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from The National Book Foundation.
Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, and Tom Wolfe, Mailer is considered an innovator of creative nonfiction, a genre sometimes called New Journalism, but which covers the essay to the nonfiction novel. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize twice and the National Book Award once. In 1955, Mailer, together with Ed Fancher and Dan Wolf, first published The Village Voice, which began as an arts- and politics-oriented weekly newspaper initially distributed in Greenwich Village. In 2005, he won the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from The National Book Foundation.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 22, 2018
I don't know for sure why I read this except that I have a fascination for Mailer. I don't particularly recommend it to the general reader but I am glad I read it. The book is a collection of articles originally written by Mailer for various magazines and newspapers between June, 1960 and August, 1963. In collecting these writings for book form, Mailer added later comments and did some revisions. On publication day John F Kennedy was still alive.
Throughout Mailer rails about American society and politics, as only Mailer could do. He includes a couple pieces written about the Democratic Convention that nominated Kennedy, another about the Kennedy campaign, and one with thoughts about Jackie Kennedy. Thus the title.
Since I have read a full biography of JFK and am currently on the third volume of Robert A Caro's huge biography of Lyndon B Johnson, this was a good companion piece for me. I would recommend the collection for those interested in that period of American history.
I don't necessarily agree with all of Mailer's viewpoints but I have to admire his style, his nerve, and his stances on what was happening to America in those years. I even have to admire his huge raging ego. New fact to me: he was a co-founder of The Village Voice!
Throughout Mailer rails about American society and politics, as only Mailer could do. He includes a couple pieces written about the Democratic Convention that nominated Kennedy, another about the Kennedy campaign, and one with thoughts about Jackie Kennedy. Thus the title.
Since I have read a full biography of JFK and am currently on the third volume of Robert A Caro's huge biography of Lyndon B Johnson, this was a good companion piece for me. I would recommend the collection for those interested in that period of American history.
I don't necessarily agree with all of Mailer's viewpoints but I have to admire his style, his nerve, and his stances on what was happening to America in those years. I even have to admire his huge raging ego. New fact to me: he was a co-founder of The Village Voice!
January 14, 2026
At some point Norman Mailer probably should have been president, but this collection of essays, interviews, and articles from the Kennedy years is a brilliant literary equivalent. If I ever have children I'll give this, Advertisements for Myself, and Cannibals and Christians to them when they become adolescents as guidebooks for leading existential lives.
From my January 2025 re-read: Mailer's "Big Bite" column from April 1963 about the timid, defeated mood in New York City during the Cuban Missile Crisis during the previous fall is possibly one of the most powerful short pieces he ever wrote.
From my January 2025 re-read: Mailer's "Big Bite" column from April 1963 about the timid, defeated mood in New York City during the Cuban Missile Crisis during the previous fall is possibly one of the most powerful short pieces he ever wrote.
November 12, 2017
This book was actually a flimsy excuse for another compilation of the author's non-fiction writing, in this case in the guise of "papers" that might actually be of interest and use to then-President Kennedy (the book was published prior to the assassination). Of what possible use the author's views on black sexuality, masturbation and the soul of a sardine might have been to JFK remains a mystery. All that being said, there is brilliant and provocative writing to be found here; the account of the Patterson v Liston fight, though rambling at times, is a highlight and certainly foreshadows his reportage of an even more famous heavyweight fight in the future. A better and more appropriate title may have been; The Mailer Papers.
July 25, 2023
At the time, this was Mailers most ambitious intellectual project. Advances the style of ‘Advertisements’, discussing the themes of revolution in America, artistic persona, violence in the ring, violence against women, masturbation, homosexuality and the sexual potency of President Kennedy and his charming First Lady.
Mailer is Machiavelli to the American court, an exiled pariah with a irrepressible desire to boast, humiliate himself, advertise and advise. Some of his best, most vivid ideas are contained in these half-manic, gnostic ramblings, and to date, his best self-characterisation.
Mailer is Machiavelli to the American court, an exiled pariah with a irrepressible desire to boast, humiliate himself, advertise and advise. Some of his best, most vivid ideas are contained in these half-manic, gnostic ramblings, and to date, his best self-characterisation.
May 21, 2018
The collection of short essays, transcripts and op-ed’s by Norman Mailer was published in 1963. Mailer, or his publishers at least, claimed to have a direct line to Kennedy’s ear, then a freshman President. Then still alive. Each piece tackles a theme related to Kennedy; either personally (there is a narrative on Jackie), or to the public policy issues of the day (including Cuba, nuclear war, housing and juvenile delinquency).
Notably, Mailer addresses each otherwise dry public policy issues with beautiful, personal and engaging prose.
Start with Mailer’s reflections on the rebellious streak running through the street kids of 1960’s Brooklyn:
“It is common in any editorial about juvenile delinquents to speak of wasted lives and growing blight, but what junk these editorials are, for there is not one root to juvenile delinquency, but two. For all the talk of broken homes, sub-marginal housing, overcrowding in the schools and cultural starvation, the other root is more alive, and one kills it at one’s peril. It is the root for which our tongues once found the older words of courage, loyalty, honor and the urge for adventure. It may be that when one gets to know them well some of the Dealers are bad pieces of work, but I would gamble that most of them are rather good pieces of work, right, sensitive to what is true and what is not true in what you say to them, loyal if they like you, and in congress together they are as alive as a pack of monkeys. They suffer only from one disease, the national disease – it is boredom. If their conversation runs the predictable riverbed of sex, gang war, drugs, weapons, movies and crazy drunks, well, at least they live out a part of their conversational obsession, which is more than one can say for the quiet, inhibited, middle-aged desperadoes of the corporation and the suburb. If we are to speak of shadows which haunt America today, the great shadow is that there is a place for everybody in our country who is willing to live the way others want him to, and talk the way other want him to, with our big, new, thick verbiage. Yes, there is a place for everybody now in the American scene except for those who want to find the limits of their growth by a life which is ready to welcome a little danger as part of the Divine cocktail.”
Although written about the Brooklyn of 1960, Mailer’s reflections embolden the reader to push and pull at that line of acceptable conduct. Although there is always a conservative resisting change, Mailer arms us with a repertoire to help conquer that inertia: he urges the reader to “push the limits of their growth by a life which is ready to welcome a little danger as part of the Devine cocktail.” Poetry enough to cause the most strident orthodox to loosen their belt just a little. Words worth remembering when trying to change public sentiment in the future.
Mailer also addresses public funding on social projects. He described a debate he had with a Senator regarding federal grant money for housing projects. As a general rule, most economists are of the view the centralised distribution of funds, whether for poverty alleviation or other public purpose, does not give more bang for the buck than localised distribution, where decisions can be better made about how to distribute the resources. Without any economics training (of which I am aware) Mailer reaches the same conclusion, albeit with finer imagery and imagination than any economist could conjure:
“So I argued with the Senator. What if a government were to take a fraction of the money it cost to dispossess and relocate slum tenants, demolish buildings, erect twenty stories of massed barracks, and instead give a thousand or two thousand dollars to each slum tenant to spend on materials for improving his apartment and to pay for the wages of whatever skilled labour he needed for small specific jobs like a new toilet, a new window, a fireplace, new wiring, wallpaper, or a new wall … By the time such a project was done, every slum apartment in the city would be different. Some would be worse, some would be improved, a few would be beautiful. But each man would know at least whether he wishes to improve his home, or truly didn’t care. And that might be better than moving into a scientifically allotted living space halfway between a hospital and a prison.”
We have to be careful not to be too adoring of the prose. Sometimes the most immediately memorable lines are that way because of their simplicity and absolutism. But dig a little deeper those ideas are not so neat.
Poetry doesn’t make good public policy. However that does not render it redundant in the public sphere. We live in a democracy. Public policy can only be implemented if the people are on board with it. The electorate will not read a 200 page policy manual published by the Institute of Public Affairs. But if you crystalise a public policy pitch into the style exemplified by Mailer in the Presidential Papers, then the people might just remember what you had to say.
Notably, Mailer addresses each otherwise dry public policy issues with beautiful, personal and engaging prose.
Start with Mailer’s reflections on the rebellious streak running through the street kids of 1960’s Brooklyn:
“It is common in any editorial about juvenile delinquents to speak of wasted lives and growing blight, but what junk these editorials are, for there is not one root to juvenile delinquency, but two. For all the talk of broken homes, sub-marginal housing, overcrowding in the schools and cultural starvation, the other root is more alive, and one kills it at one’s peril. It is the root for which our tongues once found the older words of courage, loyalty, honor and the urge for adventure. It may be that when one gets to know them well some of the Dealers are bad pieces of work, but I would gamble that most of them are rather good pieces of work, right, sensitive to what is true and what is not true in what you say to them, loyal if they like you, and in congress together they are as alive as a pack of monkeys. They suffer only from one disease, the national disease – it is boredom. If their conversation runs the predictable riverbed of sex, gang war, drugs, weapons, movies and crazy drunks, well, at least they live out a part of their conversational obsession, which is more than one can say for the quiet, inhibited, middle-aged desperadoes of the corporation and the suburb. If we are to speak of shadows which haunt America today, the great shadow is that there is a place for everybody in our country who is willing to live the way others want him to, and talk the way other want him to, with our big, new, thick verbiage. Yes, there is a place for everybody now in the American scene except for those who want to find the limits of their growth by a life which is ready to welcome a little danger as part of the Divine cocktail.”
Although written about the Brooklyn of 1960, Mailer’s reflections embolden the reader to push and pull at that line of acceptable conduct. Although there is always a conservative resisting change, Mailer arms us with a repertoire to help conquer that inertia: he urges the reader to “push the limits of their growth by a life which is ready to welcome a little danger as part of the Devine cocktail.” Poetry enough to cause the most strident orthodox to loosen their belt just a little. Words worth remembering when trying to change public sentiment in the future.
Mailer also addresses public funding on social projects. He described a debate he had with a Senator regarding federal grant money for housing projects. As a general rule, most economists are of the view the centralised distribution of funds, whether for poverty alleviation or other public purpose, does not give more bang for the buck than localised distribution, where decisions can be better made about how to distribute the resources. Without any economics training (of which I am aware) Mailer reaches the same conclusion, albeit with finer imagery and imagination than any economist could conjure:
“So I argued with the Senator. What if a government were to take a fraction of the money it cost to dispossess and relocate slum tenants, demolish buildings, erect twenty stories of massed barracks, and instead give a thousand or two thousand dollars to each slum tenant to spend on materials for improving his apartment and to pay for the wages of whatever skilled labour he needed for small specific jobs like a new toilet, a new window, a fireplace, new wiring, wallpaper, or a new wall … By the time such a project was done, every slum apartment in the city would be different. Some would be worse, some would be improved, a few would be beautiful. But each man would know at least whether he wishes to improve his home, or truly didn’t care. And that might be better than moving into a scientifically allotted living space halfway between a hospital and a prison.”
We have to be careful not to be too adoring of the prose. Sometimes the most immediately memorable lines are that way because of their simplicity and absolutism. But dig a little deeper those ideas are not so neat.
Poetry doesn’t make good public policy. However that does not render it redundant in the public sphere. We live in a democracy. Public policy can only be implemented if the people are on board with it. The electorate will not read a 200 page policy manual published by the Institute of Public Affairs. But if you crystalise a public policy pitch into the style exemplified by Mailer in the Presidential Papers, then the people might just remember what you had to say.
August 1, 2025
"When Norman Mailer died he donated his ego to Harvard Medical School".---Woody Allen. Look no further for proof that this collection of articles and musings on the Kennedy years, including Mailer's notorious piece on the Democratic Convention of 1960 that nominated JFK for president, "Superman Comes to the Supermarket", which Mailer insisted "had played some role in Kennedy's election"! Mailer was later thrilled to be invited to the White House where Kennedy honored him by saying he had read "THE DEER PARK {Mailer's infamous flop of a second novel} and some of your others". If you want an intellectual to love you, tell him how much you admire his failures.
April 3, 2018
VII: In America few people will trust you unlces you are irreverent.
p.15 In the flabby American spirit there is buried a sadist who find the bullfight contempible--What he really desires are gladiators.
p.175 We gave our freedom away a long time ago. We gave it away in all the revolutions we did not make, all the acts of courage we found a way to avoid, all the roots we destroyed in fury at that past which would still haunt our deeds.
p.237 Champions are prodiges of will--one of the elements which separates them from club fighters or contenders is an urge which carries them through crisis other fighters are not willing to endure
p.15 In the flabby American spirit there is buried a sadist who find the bullfight contempible--What he really desires are gladiators.
p.175 We gave our freedom away a long time ago. We gave it away in all the revolutions we did not make, all the acts of courage we found a way to avoid, all the roots we destroyed in fury at that past which would still haunt our deeds.
p.237 Champions are prodiges of will--one of the elements which separates them from club fighters or contenders is an urge which carries them through crisis other fighters are not willing to endure
April 23, 2012
There were many 5-star sections of this book, where Mailer goes on exceptionally about all sorts of existential topics, as they relate to JFK and the early 60s. As a time capsule, it's invaluable. Nevertheless, there were a few sections that were unfortunately callous, ignorant, and unreadable. For example, he claims that masturbation is worse than rape. I still want to read a great deal more Mailer, because he did have some quality ideas in beautiful language. Obviously, I do not believe the aforementioned example was one of those.
October 31, 2008
If the goal of a piece of writing is to make the reader think, then this work is a real success. Mailer is not a pleasant, or particularly admirable, man, but his fascination with his own subconscious forces the reader to confront many different ideas.
In addition, the article "Superman Goes to the Supermarket" is one of the finest essays I have read. It is too bad in a way, because he starts the collection with it, and it's all downhill from there.
In addition, the article "Superman Goes to the Supermarket" is one of the finest essays I have read. It is too bad in a way, because he starts the collection with it, and it's all downhill from there.
Read
September 27, 2019Bit more of a mixed bag than 'Advertisements for Myself', it felt like he was building up to something big there, and as fine as some of this stuff is, it can't help but feel like stalling for time. Mailer's long philosophical indulgences are occasionally grating, but the long pieces about Kennedy and the Liston/Patterson fight are top notch
September 1, 2007
The tie between digesting and culture is particularly appropriate when traveling in Asia.
Want to read
January 29, 20081968
February 6, 2016
1963 edition
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews