Locator: 44935D.
In my Norman Mailer phase.
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To The Grandchildren
Archives
Norman Mailer, letters, 813 MAI:
- #11, 40 Otis Place, Boston, Massachusetts, June 21, 1942
- writing; hospital orderly
- #12, Dunster Hall, G-41, Harvard College, April 10, 1943
- decides to enlist, US Army, as a private, for the experience
- #13, April 28, 1943 (probably same address)
- writing; looking for an agent
- #14, May 2, 1943 (probably same address)
- graduation is set for May 27, 1943
- mentions that Radcliffe-Harvard merger off again
- #15, June 9, 1943, Provincetown, MA
- writing; has Harvard undergraduate degree
- #16, 102 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn, NY, January 11, 1944
- provides bio to Edwin Seaver (agent?)
- born in Long Branch, NJ, January 31, 1923
- lived in Brooklyn, NY, most of his life to that point
- graduated Harvard, June, 1943
- draft board refuses his request for extension
- says his bio can now add "Armed Forces" (resignation or sarcastic?)
- #17, January 19, 1944
- requests change in appointment to Government Appeal Agent, due to his "illness"
- reason for request for deferment: writing a novel
- #18, Camp Upton, NY, April 1, 1944
- mentions it is his sixth day since he's been gone
- therefore, signed in on/about Monday, March 27, 1944 (possibly arrived Sunday)
- #19, Fort Bragg, NC, April 30, 1944
- long letter; explains the US Army to his folks
- #20, May 21, 1944
- #21, Fort Bragg, ND, late May, 1944
- #22, King George Hotel, San Francisco, California, August 22, 1944
- to his wife Beatrice
- arrived in San Francisco, that day/date
- describes trip from east coast to SF; describes SF
- #23, USS Sea Barb, at sea, December 2x?, 1944
- to his wife Beatrice
- #24, Luzon, Philippines, February 1, 1945,
- to his parents
- on another [blank space] in the Philippines
- 12th Regimental Combat Team; HQ; does not do any fightiing
- #25, March 11, 1945
- still in the Philippines; weary of the place; wants to go to China; see birth of civilization;
- #26, April 11, 1945
- been in a "little combat"
- his description of that "little combat" sounds exactly like what he wrote in The Naked and The Dead
- #27, April 25, 1945
- to his wife Beatrice
- talks of his fears of dying in combat
- #28, May 14, 1945
- to his wife Beatrice
- long letter; much on combat
- wow, sounds just like early chapters in The Naked and the Dead
- #29, May 17, 1945
- to his wife Beatrice
- on combat and courage
- #30, June 4, 1945
- to his wife Beatrice
- one of the greatest moments of his life: given a machine gun
- reading Thoreau, who is abhorrent to him (Mailer)
- June 9, 1945
- to his wife Beatrice
- more military writing
- August 9, 1945
- to his wife Beatrice
- talk of the atom bomb; more talk than about V-E day; as much as Roosevelt's death
- #33, Tateyama Naval Base, Japan, September 4, 1945
- to his parents
- saw USS Missouri just as surrender was being signed; heard it on the radio; saw it through the porthole
- landed on Japan; undramatic
- talks about "getting home"; depends on "points"; he says he might have a chance
- #34, Choshi, Japan, October 3, 1945
- to his wife Beatrice
- working as cook in KP
- talks about getting his section sergeant in Recoon back on Luzoon in his novel; Ysidro Martinez
- I don't think Mailer has mentioned the proposed name for this novel yet
- #35, mid-October, 1945
- mentions Spengler
- #36, mid-October, 1945
- to his wife Beatrice
- thought about his novel; mentions "Red" as if has introduced "Red" in earlier letters; if so, I missed it; also mentions Ridges
- #37, mid-October 1945
- to his wife Beatrice
- mentions a short piece for his novel
- #38, October 30, 1945
- to his wife Beatrice
- reading Anna Karenina, Tolstoy); found it much greater than War and Peace (Dostoyevsky)
- #39, November 12, 1945
- to his wife Beatrice
- mentions The White Tower, James Ramsay Ullman
- #40, November 25, 1945
- to his wife Beatrice
- writes the scene of murdering a Japanese soldier in cold blood
- #41, December 21, 1945
- to his wife Beatrice
- working at a hospital
- still writing novel; sending Beatrice snippets of his novel
- #42, December 22, 1945
- to his wife Beatrice
- another piece for his novel
- #43, January 12, 1946
- to his wife Beatrice
- wrote out the names of all the soldiers he's known
- 161, to be precise
- #44, January 14, 1946
- to his parents
- tells his parents about the novel he's writing; no name suggested
- #45, Onahoma, Japan, January 25, 1946
- to his wife Beatrice
- #46, Choshi, Japan, March 3, 1946
- to his wife Beatrice
- more on his novel
- #47, Tokyo, Japan, March 8, 1946
- to his wife Beatrice
- 3-day pass
- looks like he's heading
- could be leaving Yokohama between April 15 and April 25, 1946
- #48, Choshi, Japan, March 14, 1946
- to his wife Beatrice
- more for the novel
- #49, March 27, 1946
- to his wife Beatrice
- passage on Croft, character in the novel
- #50, 49 Remsen Street, Brooklyn, NY, mid-October, 1946
- first letter since Choshi, Japan
- writing editor at Little, Brown and Co; of course, talking about his novel
- like most soldiers, after the war, returned home;
- #51, October 24, 1946
- frustrated a re-write; euphemism for deleting profanity;
- #52, early November 1946
- letter to editor at Amussen, Rinehart and Co
- his novel, of course; no title mentioned
- #53, mid-November, 1946
- to Angus Cameron, Little, Brown and Co
- his novel, of course; hurt, bitter, frustrated
- #54, 11 rue Brea, Paris, November 1, 1947
- to I. B. Mailer alone, father
- finally, mentions the title, The Naked and the Dead
- being retyped for the printers
- #55, December 6, 1947
- to his father
- mentions letter from Bill Raney; talked with Stan Rinehart; giddy with book
- says "they should do this book B-I-G"
- will start a new novel even as TNATD is being published
- what happened to Beatrice?
- #56, February 7, 1948
- to Bill Raney, editor
- still in Paris
- talks about profanity in his novel; long letter
- #57, March 1, 1948
- to Bill Raney, more on profanity
- #58, May 10, 1948
- to agent at Sam Jaffe Agency
- mentions "Bea" coming in with lots of mail
- says he may soon need an agent
- #59, May 12, 1948
- letter to Mrs Hyman Silverman
- Rinehart has published his novel
- still in Paris, but planning to return to the US; talks about buying a car;
- #60, May 31, 1948
- to agents at Sam Jaffe Agency
- now talking about film script
- #61, July 12, 1948
- letter to Mrs Hyman Silverman
- calls them his mother and father; Beatrice's parents?
- apparently live in Chelsea
- #62, Boston, August 4, 1948,
- to parents
- working with Lillian Hellman; how to turn a novel into a play
- #63, Box 140, Jamaica, Vermont, telegram, after March 9, 1949
- to Arthur Miller
- congrats on The Death of a Salesman
- #64, April 24, 1949
- letter to Charlees Rembar
- says he may head to California
- #65, April 30, 1949
- letter to Mark Linenthal and Alice Adams
- talks about going out to California
- reflection on life; long letter; important
- #66, Chateau Marmont, 8221 Sunset Blvd, Hollywood, California, July 3, 1949
- letter to Jean and Galy Malaquais (close friend; talked about many times earlier)
- invites them out to California; friends from France
- #67, 1601 Marley Drive, Hollywood, California, July 24, 1949
- to parents
- describes CA to his parents; sends them a "big" check
- mentions he will be seeing Lillian Hellman
- #68, August 8, 1949
- letter to Lillian Hellman
- film TNATD
- #69, August 21, 1949
- to his parents
- waiting for their first baby
- #70, 7475 Hillside Avenue, Los Angeles, California, November 17, 1949
- to his father
- long newsy letter
- last letter of 1940s
- now, on to the 1950s
Linda:
- undergraduate: Rutgers, New Jersey, matriculated, 1967
- undergraduate degree: Rutgers, 1971
- 1972: Harvard medical school; matriculated
- medical school, MD degree: Harvard, 1975
- 1977: the "non-merger merger" between Harvard and Radcliffe
- residency: Washington University, St Louis
Radcliffe - Harvard:
Acceptance of the 19th-century rationales for this exclusion was fading, particularly as during the 1960s, a nationwide movement for co-education grew. Reflecting this movement, many Radcliffe students began to insist upon receiving Harvard diplomas for their academic work and upon merging Radcliffe and Harvard extra-curricular activities. Growing budgetary problems at Radcliffe encouraged this insistence. The Radcliffe Graduate School merged with Harvard's in 1963, and from that year onward Radcliffe undergraduates received Harvard University diplomas signed by the presidents of Radcliffe and Harvard. (Harvard students' diplomas were signed only by the president of Harvard.) Many Radcliffe and Harvard student groups combined during the decade and joint commencement exercises between the two institutions began in 1970.
In 1971, largely in response to gains made by newly co-ed Princeton and Yale in their respective yields of students admitted to Harvard, Yale and Princeton, and to comparable admissions competition posed by the increasing national popularity of co-ed Stanford, Harvard president Derek Bok reduced the admissions ratio of Harvard students to Radcliffe students from 4:1 to 5:2.
That same year, several Harvard and Radcliffe dormitories began swapping students through an experimental program, and in 1972 full co-residence between the two colleges was instituted. The schools' departments of athletics merged shortly thereafter.
By the late 1960s there were open discussions between Radcliffe and Harvard about complete merger of the two institutions—which in truth meant abolition of Radcliffe. However, a merger study committee of the Radcliffe Alumnae Association recommended caution. In a prepared statement, the committee reported that "it would be a mistake to dissolve Radcliffe at this time. Women's self-awareness is increasing as the 'women's liberation movement develops and as moderate groups call attention to the life styles and problems particular to women. This is precisely the wrong time to abolish a prestigious women's college which should be giving leadership to women as they seek to define and enlarge their role in society."
Instead of a complete merger, in 1977 Radcliffe president Matina Horner and Harvard president Derek Bok signed an agreement that, through their admission to Radcliffe, put undergraduate women entirely in Harvard College. The so-called "non-merger merger" combined the Radcliffe and Harvard admissions offices and ended the forced ceiling on female enrollment. In practice most of the energies of Radcliffe (which remained an autonomous institution) were then devoted to the institution's research initiatives and fellowships, rather than to female undergraduates. The Harvard and Radcliffe undergraduate communities and classes came to be known officially as "Harvard and Radcliffe" or "Harvard-Radcliffe," and female students continued to be awarded degrees signed by both presidents. Radcliffe continued to own its campus and provided financial aid, undergraduate prizes, and externship and fellowship opportunities to Radcliffe students, and the college continued to sponsor academic access programs for high school girls and continuing education opportunities for people outside the traditional college age. The college also continued to support programs and workshops targeting female undergraduates.
In practice, though, Radcliffe at this point had minimal impact on the average undergraduate's day to day experiences at the university. This minimal role fueled still more talk about a full merger of the two schools. Conversely, supporters of the "non-merger merger" maintained that the agreement gave Radcliffe students the full benefits of Harvard citizenship while allowing maintenance of the proud Radcliffe identity, an institution with its own mission, programs, financial resources and alumnae network.
On October 1, 1999, Radcliffe College was fully absorbed into Harvard University; female undergraduates were henceforward members only of Harvard College while Radcliffe College evolved into the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
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Linda's Boston
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