Greetings Society Members,
Serving as president of the Norman Mailer Society has been an honor, however brief, and one made possible entirely by the generosity, trust, and collective labor of this community. At every moment when I reached out for help, advice, or perspective, someone answered. That reflexive willingness to lend a hand, coupled with the field’s intellectual rigor and openness, is what first drew me to Mailer Studies and what continues to sustain the Society.
I am deeply grateful to Mike and Donna Lennon, Phil Sipiora, Maggie McKinley, Bob Begiebing, John Buffalo Mailer, Susan Mailer, Enid Stubin, Matt Hinton, Bonnie Culver, and many others whose steady work, counsel, and encouragement supported my time as president. I am also conscious that much of the Society’s most important labor happens quietly and without recognition, and I thank all those who contribute in ways large and small.
I owe particular thanks to Phil Sipiora, the founding and outgoing editor of The Mailer Review. Phil’s steadfast leadership and editorial vision made the Review possible and sustained it across fifteen volumes, with a sixteenth forthcoming before he steps down. On a personal level, I cannot adequately express my gratitude to Phil as a mentor through graduate school, a dissertation director, a colleague, and a friend. Much of whatever success I have had as an academic, a scholar, and a person is inseparable from his guidance and support.
As I assume the editorship of The Mailer Review, especially at a moment when the journal transitions to a fully digital format, I do so with a strong sense of responsibility. My aim is not reinvention but stewardship: to maintain high scholarly standards, to emphasize rigorous peer evaluation, and to ensure broad access while preserving the Review as a shared intellectual resource. I look forward to continuing this work in a new capacity and to serving a community that has already given me far more than I could ever repay.
All the best to you and yours and we bid 2025 adieu. May 2026 shine a bit brighter for us all. I’ll see everyone in Florida in the fall.
Jerry Lucas