Was Norman Mailer Canceled? His Publishers Say No.

“You can’t cancel Norman Mailer.” From The New York Times: The independent press Skyhorse acquired a new book by the late writer after Random House, his longtime publisher, declined to make an offer. In the wake of a seemingly made-up controversy, the record is set straight by John Buffalo Mailer and J. Michael Lennon in an article by Alexandra Alter and Elizabeth A. Harris. They write:

The fate of Mailer’s collection, however, generated a heated debate on social media this week, after the journalist Michael Wolff reported in the newsletter The Ankler that Random House had canceled its planned publication of the title because it determined that Mailer — who was famously brash, physically violent, misogynistic and pugnacious in attacking those who disagreed with him — had become too controversial. Citing a Random House source, Mr. Wolff wrote that the publisher was also swayed by “a junior staffer’s objection to the title of Mailer’s 1957 essay, ‘The White Negro.’”