J. MICHAEL LENNON, PRESIDENT
This is the Mailer Society business meeting, November 4th, 2005, Provincetown, Mass. The minutes of the November 2004 business meeting were passed on a motion by James Romano, seconded by Mark Triplett, with no dissenting votes. Next, David Light will now give the Treasurer’s Report.
DAVID LIGHT, TREASURER
Good morning. My report is short and sweet. In your blue packet, is a report of our balances in our checking account and our savings account, and the Lucid Award account. We might be looking to move some of our funds out into a higher interest earning account. Currently, our funds are in a very simple savings account. On the left hand side of your blue folder, attached to the agenda, is my report. Our expenses over the last year have been mainly for conference expenses and will continue to be so. If it is important that you have a detailed sheet, for your records, I can certainly provide you one, but I felt it was important just to show you our balances. We are in very good shape.
Our membership during our first year, our trial year of 2003, back in Brooklyn, was about 225, and that was expected. We had approximately 80 people at the conference that first year. Last year our membership dipped to 158, and we had, once again, about 75 people that attended the conference. This year, our membership is up to 170 and we have between 95 and 100 people coming this weekend Last year, we said it was important to bring in college students, which the future of the Society depends upon them. I was very pleased to see that we have some of them participating in some of the activities of this weekend. I think that we have about 15 students registered this year. Overall, we had about 25 new members this year. I was very encouraged to see that. So, Mr. President, I submit the Treasurer’s Report as detailed in your packages.
LENNON
Are there any questions or comments?
LIGHT
Should I go ahead and ask for a motion on this?
LENNON
I don’t think we need one.
LENNON
I’d like to thank David for all the work he did this year. [applause follows.]
LIGHT
In you folder are a schedule of the activities and panels. You should also have a program in there. Please wear your badge to all events because the reading at the Rep Theatre this evening is open to the public and, of course, your registration fee has paid for your admission, but non-members who come will be charged a very nominal fee, and we want to be able to differentiate them from our members. Also in your packet there’s a ticket to the reception at Mr. Mailer’s home.
Compliments are due to Program Chair Bob Begiebing, Phil Sipiora and Mike Lennon for helping getting panelists lined up. If I forgot anyone, please forgive me. This year we have students here from Florida, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and other states and we need to discuss how we as a Society can help get them here, how we can assist them financially, in the future.
Next item: we have four fantastic items that we’re raffling off, all connected to Vertical City, Mr. Mailer’s Lego Block construction from the 1960s. Three of these items are signed by Mr. Mailer, and the fourth is some of the actual Legos that were part of his Vertical City, which is featured on the dust jacket of his 1966 collection, Cannibals and Christians. The price is $10 a ticket, and I’m selling them. All the ticket sales will go to benefit the Society.
Next item: There are capsule biographies of all the panelists in your packets, bios of everyone making a presentation. We also have book table with various items for sale, including this new publication from Mike Lennon called “Norman Mailer’s Provincetown: The Wild West of the East.” It’s in pamphlet form, and it’s $10, and it’s going to benefit both the Mailer Society and the Provincetown Repertory Theatre. We also have hats and t-shirts, as we did last year. Finally, you should have also received, as you came in, a little sheet to buy a box lunch to be delivered here. Stephen Borkowski has been very helpful in coordinating the box lunch; they will be delivered at what time Stephen?
STEPHEN BORKOWSKI
1:00 PM.
BARRY LEEDS, VICE PRESIDENT, NOMINATING COMMITTEE CHAIR
We have five members whose staggered terms are up as of today. They are Robert Begiebing, Philip Bufithis, Christopher Busa, Barbara Lounsberry and Neil Abercrombie. I have either received confirmation from them by e-mail, phone, or in person of their willingness to be stand for re-election. So the first motion that I would like to make is that these five members, all of whom have worked tirelessly for us up to now, be renewed for a three-year term until November of 2008. I’ll make that motion; do I have a second?
LEEDS
For the record, please identify yourself. Okay, Phil Sipiora seconds the motion.LEEDS
Will the membership signify their assent by saying aye?
MEMBERSHIP
Aye.
LEEDS
Are there any “nays” or abstentions? None, okay. The second thing is that we would like to expand the board, and go up to 18, which is full strength, we had 12 in our first year, it went to 15 last year and we have two more people who we would like to nominate to the Board, and they are Tara Carlin and Philip Sipiora. I move that these two people be added to the board, with terms to begin in 2005 and end in 2008. I move this; do I have a second?
JAMES ROMANO
Seconded. I’m James Romano.
LEEDS
James Romano seconds. Would the membership signify their assent by saying “aye” please?
MEMBERSHIP
Aye.
LEEDS
Are there any nays? None, okay. Finally, we have a resignation. John Whalen-Bridge has been Secretary of the Society since its inception, but the poor guy lives in Singapore and can never get to these meetings. With some regrets, John has tendered his resignation. We would like to nominate the same Ms. Tara Carlin as our new Secretary. I would move this nomination and, do I have a second for it? Yes, from Bob Begiebing. And, do I have ayes?
MEMBERSHIP
Aye.
LEEDS
Any Nays? None, okay. Thanks for making this very easy; that’s the end of the Nominating Committee Report.
LEEDS
That’s the end of the nominating committee, but I’ll stay up here for the Robert Lucid Award. This is going to be very brief. I had a wonderful committee to work with, my good friend and colleague, Phil Bufithis, and Barbara Lounsberry, who couldn’t be here today. They worked tirelessly and with enormous erudition to screen the various nominees for the Lucid Award. But, ultimately, we determined after some agonizing that there was nothing published worthy of this award, particularly given the name that’s attached to it, and so there will be no award this year. Of course, this is not without precedent. I believe the James Jones Literary Society has given their award something like twice in the past five years, am I right, Mike?
LENNON
Yes, correct. The next item on the agenda is a proposal from Larry Schiller. As you know, Larry’s been very generous to the society. Not only does he handle the transcription of the meetings, he donated $5,000 to get the Lucid Award started, and it’s over $6,000 now and still growing. We’d like to get it to $10,000 and would welcome any donations. Larry is a fountain of ideas and a few months ago he contacted me, and he told the same story he told last year at the conference about how he had been encouraged as a young photojournalist and how much that had meant to him. He was therefore was very pleased that we had so many students delivering papers and attending the conference this year. But then he had another idea. He said he would like to create an award to honor someone, and this is what Larry has written; this is his proposal: “To honor Norman Mailer’s many path finding, political cultural narratives, including The Armies of the Night, Miami and the Siege Of Chicago, and St. George and the Godfather, and to encourage other bold, intelligent and crafted works of this genre, the Norman Mailer Society will make an award initially set at $1,000 each year that a candidate is chosen. A committee of three distinguished writers, appointed by the Society’s president, will make the selection from a slate of three to five nominees, drawn up by the officers of the Society. Nominated works must have been published by a U.S. publisher, or appeared in a United States print periodical in the preceding year, but there is no limitation on the nature, regularity, or affiliation of the publisher or the periodical. The award will be presented at the Society’s annual meeting, which the winner must attend to receive. The travel expenses of the winner will be paid by the Society. The endowment for this award was created by a foundational gift from the Lawrence Schiller Foundation. Mr. Schiller is a member of the Society’s Board.” Now, I know that there will be a lot of questions before we vote on this motion, but I want to announce that Mr. Schiller wants to donate $10,000 to get the ball rolling. If we give $1,000 a year, we won’t earn enough interest and we will deplete the $10,000. So we have to do a little bit of fundraising to get it up over the next few years, although not immediately. Larry would like to see it get, see this thing rolling as soon as possible. We also have to figure out how to identify these excellent narrative works that, broadly speaking, cast light on the state of the Republic, as well as the political, intellectual and cultural life of the United States. How do we do that? Larry asks that members of the Society send ideas to a committee, which I’m going to appoint, assuming the membership approves this award. For the award committee, I’m thinking of people like Ron Rosenbaum, who spoke at our first conference, Jack Newfield, Joan Didion, Doris Kearns Goodwin, people who are distinguished writers, who are concerned about the state of our country. I laud Larry Schiller for his vision and his generosity, and I’d like to ask if anybody would like to make some comments on this because it’s a rather daunting venture. Can I have some comment on this? Chris Busa?
BUSA
Is there a model for this type of award? I’m thinking of the Robert Kennedy Award for political journalism. Are you familiar with that award? I suggest that it be checked out to see if it applies.
BARBARA WASSERMAN
How would you find the people who would make the decisions?
LENNON
How would we find the people to make the decision, Barbara Wassermann asks. I would like to propose is that we establish a committee to do some investigation and thinking about this award. The committee would come back to us next year with a proposal on all the mechanics and procedures. That’s the short answer. The long answer is that everyone in the Society should contact the chair of this committee with ideas, with suggestions. If we first give the award in the fall of 2007, only books published in 2006 would be considered. You might have 50 works nominated during that period. The committee would cull those, and would finally come down to three, four, five works, which would then be sent to the distinguished writers like Jack Newfield or Joan Didion. And they would then read those three books and select the winner. That’s the way the National Book Award has done it for many years. So it would be like building a pyramid: a broad base of nominations, up through a selection committee that will cull it down to three or four or five books, that we would get them to this distinguished committee, who would make the final choice. In the meantime, Larry and I and other members of the Society could work on raising some more money. Maybe we could get the endowment for this up to $20,000. Larry has some very definite ideas about where we could go to obtain contributions from people who have capacity to fund these kinds of things. We would, of course, take contributions from everyone. In a year or two, we could give the first award, and we’d have a plaque; we’d bring the person here to be part of the agenda of the meeting. I think this award would add luster to the Society and it would advance the cause of good, intelligent, unafraid, determined writing.
PHIL BUFITHIS
I just wanted to say that it’s important that the, and this has already been established, that the selection committee choose literary texts and not those that are principally reportage or journalism. This is essential, I feel. Also, this committee would depend, or would like to depend heavily, on the members of the Norman Mailer Society to keep their eyes peeled for recommendations to the selection committee.
LENNON
That’s right, we’re not looking for statistical analyses, we’re not looking for books–I don’t want to say that an economist couldn’t win this award, but somebody from the broader Humanities fields is more likely. The winner could be a working journalist who’s written a book about Afghanistan. The point is to keep want to keep it as wide open as possible, but I think Phil’s point is a good one. Larry Schiller said, “I want to see this award go to somebody who writes in the spirit of Norman Mailer, bold, unafraid, strong analyses of the country and its problems, rather than a specialized academic study.” Yes, Don Sackrider, did you want to say something?
SACKRIDER
I just wanted to say how about contacting some of the other awards, like the Kennedy and maybe PEN-Faulkner, and see how they go about doing things, maybe taking some of their leftovers.
LENNON
Well, I like all you say, except the last word. (laughter)
SACKRIDER
I don’t mean leftovers, really, but you know that frequently such awards have a hard time choosing—the finalists are all good.
LENNON
Yes.
SACKRIDER
So it would be a shame to pass those by, and I think sharing ideas, rather than competing, would be good.
LENNON
I agree, Don, and I think that by looking both of those operations we can benefit from their experience, especially the Kennedy one. I would like to ask Phil Bufithis if he would chair this committee, and bring a report back to us next year on how we might get this established. That gives him a year to do it, and I’d like to appoint him with your blessing to tackle this job. Any member of the Society who’s interested in helping out in any way, please contact Phil, and if Phil wants to approach other members of the Society to serve with him on this committee, that’d be fine too. I don’t think we want a committee of 10, but any member of the Society can make suggestions and if Phil wants to get a couple of people to work closely with him, that’d be fine, too. Is that agreeable to you, Phil?
PHIL BUFITHIS
Yes.
MALE
Do you need a second?
LENNON
I think I have the power to appoint committees, but I would like to have a show of hands on whether this is a good way to proceed. Could I have a show of hands to approve this? Okay. Any reservations about this? Okay, no reservations. Well, thank you very much. I think this is an exciting new venture for us.
** LENNON**
Phil Bufithis gave me a wonderful piece of paper, which I’ve proceeded to lose, Phil. Phil, why don’t you stand up and say a couple of words about the Antietam Review and your interview with Larry Schiller in it. There are copies for sale.
** BUFITHIS**
The interview with Larry Schiller is entitled “On the Road with Larry Schiller.” I was on the road with him, and Dr. Henry Lee, last June when Larry was doing a couple of installments for his television series, “The Case Files of Dr. Henry Lee.” Larry is such a generous, candid and enormously energetic man. He talks about photography and the interview winds up as a kind of history of photojournalism in the United States. Anyway, the Antietam Review is an annual literary and magazine. Larry has donated his payment for the interview, $225, to the Society.
LENNON
So we’re at $10,225 in this fund already. (laughter)
BUFITHIS
That’s right.
LENNON
Larry knows so much and I encourage you to read it; it’s a wonderful piece. We have some announcements, but before we get to the announcements and the appreciations, we have to consider where we’re going to have the conference next year. October seems to be a favorite month for conferences, and there’s less fear of snowstorms. So I’d like to open a discussion on what we might do about the conference next year.
LEEDS
I would like to move that we keep it in Provincetown, for at least one more year. One of the main reasons is that as long as Mr. Mailer’s alive, we have a great opportunity. The fact that Mr. and Mrs. Mailer host a cocktail party for us every year is amazing. I think that’s just a wonderful thing, an opportunity that maybe we shouldn’t pass up. I’m sorry to editorialize at such great length, but I would like to move that we keep it in Provincetown next year.
LENNON
Is there a second to that?
ASHTON HOWLEY
I second it.
LENNON
Seconded by Ashton Howley.
LIGHT
I hope it’s not premature to note that Mr. Mailer is now completing a novel, and we anticipate that that publication will be next September or October. It would be an ideal book to celebrate at the conference.
LENNON
Yes, he is hoping that that new book will be out next year. And it would be great timing. Back to announcements: Mr. Mailer, on September the 8th, had quadruple bypass surgery and he is, as he says, getting better “one percent a day.” Tonight will be his first outing since the surgery. He has made great progress but he is still a little bit short of breath although feeling pretty feisty and angry with various officials of the United States government (laughter) for various nefarious things. The reading tonight will be the Mailer Family Reading: Norman, Norris Church Mailer, two sons, Stephen Mailer and John Buffalo Mailer. Kate Mailer was to be the fifth, but she has bronchitis and a family friend named Kristina Pabst is filling in. So those five folks will be giving the reading. Any other thoughts about the conference? I should add that we would like to leave it to the Board to figure out the exact date, but we would shoot for October.
LIGHT
Mike, I can say right now that there is a weekend, the one before Columbus Day, which I believe is October 12-14, and I recommend that weekend.
LENNON
If we did it then, the full array of services would be available at the Provincetown Inn and we wouldn’t have to cater the lunch. The Inn really closes down in November and they have only a skeleton staff which makes it a bit like the Jack Nicholson movie as you’re walking down the corridors. (laughter) Okay, we have a motion; we have a second, any further discussion? No. All in favor please say “aye.”
MEMBERSHIP
Aye.
LENNON
We have some more announcements. Mr. Mailer learned recently that he would be receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Award Foundation on November 17th in New York. Toni Morrison will put the award around his neck. Garrison Keillor will also be there, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti is also getting some kind of lifetime achievement award.
John Whalen-Bridge, a member of Board, has been, for at least three years, working with the Journal of Modern Literature on a special issue devoted to Norman Mailer. It’s called “Late Mailer and Masculinities.” (laughter) A wonderful plural. It will appear in April of next year and various people, including members of the Society, have contributed to it. We were hoping to get some specific information that. Ashton Howley, do you know, is it Indiana University Press that publishes this journal?
HOWLEY
Yes, I think so.
LENNON
We wanted an order form to give out, but we never could quite get our hands on it, but I urge you, if you’re interested in reading more about Mailer’s works from The Executioner’s Song on, you will want to get a copy. Also there may be a Mailer session at the ALA, the American Literary Association, in San Francisco. Ashton Howley, do you have the dates?
HOWLEY
Yes, May 26th to 29th.
LENNON
Ashton will chair this session; please see him if you are interested in participating. Are there any other announcements? David?
LIGHT
Just a few comments about the location of the two panels that’ll be running concurrently. This is the Mayflower Room. And in the Mayflower Room we’ll have Gender Panel, No. 1. Right across the way from us is the Alfredo Room and at the same time we will have Mailer and Gender Panel, No. 2.panel. So panels one and two are running concurrently. We’ll be reconvening back here for panel No. 3, “Collecting Mailer.” Lunch is on your own, and then we will reassemble at 2:45 in the Fine Arts Work Center for the dramatic presentations organized by Barry Leeds and Bonnie Culver. The social hour will be right there at the Fine Arts Work Center from 4:30-6:00. Dinner’s on your own, and then we’ll be reconvening again at the Provincetown Repertory Theatre on Bradford Street at 7:30. Are there any questions about the panels?
BUSA
Did you announce anything on the event in Cambridge on Saturday?
MIKE LENNON
No, I didn’t, thank you.
MIKE LENNON
The Association of Literary Scholars and Critics is having its annual conference in Boston Saturday night and it’s honoring Christopher Ricks, who is now Professor of Poetry at Oxford, and who is also affiliated with Boston University. The after-dinner event will be Mr. Mailer responding to my questions about the novel.
This is the open portion of the meeting for anyone who has any ideas, suggestions, complaints or problems. If you do, please raise your hand now. Yes, James Romano.
ROMANO
I think it’d be very interesting that if Mr. Mailer could do some recordings of his works for the Society to raise money. That’s my suggestion.
LENNON
Thank you very much; that’s a good suggestion. By the way, it was Mr. Mailer’s idea that the Vertical City items be raffled off. And he was the one who arranged for someone to take that beautiful photograph of it. Any other ideas? Marc Triplett?
MARC TRIPLETT
Has any thought been given to possibly publishing a membership list of the Society on the website or elsewhere?
LENNON
We have a new Secretary now and I don’t know if anybody would object to having his or her name published on the site as a way of keeping track. I think that’s a great idea.
DEBORAH MARTINSON
I have a suggestion. I’m in southern California, and it’s rather daunting for those of us on the west coast to come to Provincetown, Massachusetts, flying into Rhode Island and renting a car and all that. But I think if there are some young west coast scholars interested in Mailer’s work, young graduate students, we might appoint someone from Southern California, say me, to work with them if they are they’re interested in coming. We could coordinate rental cars; we could do all that kind of thing. I think it would really help students with no money to at least have somebody willing to share expenses.
LENNON
Thank you. Deborah Martinson has suggested that we appoint her to be the west coast coordinator for bringing more students into the Society. That’s a fine idea, Deborah.
MARTINSON
Ashton could do Canada and Phil Sipiora could handle the South. (laughter)
HOWLEY
I am wondering if grad students who are presenting at the conference might get travel grants. I’m thinking of students who have written on Norman Mailer. A hundred bucks, two hundred bucks to help them get here and to motivate them.
LENNON
I agree, and insofar as we’re able to do that, we should. Larry Schiller was interested in the Society doing that, and it’s something we might consider. We did cut in half the registration fee this year for students to try to help, but I think we should try to do more than that. We also have several students working here and we’re paying for their hotel rooms. We’ll pursue this Ashton.
I’d now like to thank some people who have helped with conference arrangements. First, Steve Borkowski, who has helped in countless way, carrying boxes, lining up meals; we are very grateful for his help. Chris Busa has done the same, been very helpful. He has donated copies of Provincetown Arts magazine, and has given us a gratis advertisement for the conference in the current issue. Next, Guy Wolfe and Boards of the local theatre companies. They’re down at the theater hanging lights as I speak. Hunter O’Hanion, who is Director of the Fine Arts Work Center, has been very cooperative with us in allowing us to use the Work Center at no charge. Chuck Morris, who is the artist who put together that very interesting work at the back of the room. And Eric Anderson from the Inn has been a big help. Chach is our chef, as she was last year. Thanks for a great meal. The Mailer family, of course, has been wonderful; they have helped us a great deal and Norman’s assistant, Dwayne Prickett, has been a big help as well. And the person who has done more than anyone to make this meeting happen is David Light, who deserves a round of applause as do all these other folks. (applause) Somebody told me that if you went into David Light’s room at 3:00 in the morning and you shined a light in his eyes, they would be open. (laughter) Could I have a motion to adjourn the business meeting please?
LENNON
Mark Olshaker makes the motion, and Bob Begiebing seconds. All in favor please say aye.
MEMBERSHIP
Aye.