The Million Dollar Way (The Bakken Oil Blog): For The Archives -- For The Grandchildren -- Nothing About The Bakken -- Norman Mailer Phase -- June 14, 2023

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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Wednesday, June 14, 2023

For The Archives -- For The Grandchildren -- Nothing About The Bakken -- Norman Mailer Phase -- June 14, 2023

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