“Mornings with Mailer is a tender and affectionate view of the protean author at the end of the Big Novel that was his life. Dwayne Raymond’s book offers a uniquely intimate perspective on one of our literary giants. Applause.” — Tom Piazza, author of City of Refuge
“In this moving memoir, Dwayne Raymond provides an intimate look at the daily routine of a great writer in the last years of his life.” — Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Team of Rivals
Mornings with Mailer is the revealing memoir by Dwayne Raymond, the man who worked as Norman Mailer’s personal assistant during the last five years of the iconic author’s life. Recasting the legendary writer of such classics as The Naked and the Dead and The Executioner’s Song in a new light, Mornings with Mailer describes the powerful bond that formed between him and Raymond from April 2003 until Mailer’s death in November 2007.
Dwayne Raymond worked with Norman Mailer from April 2003 until Mailer's death in November 2007. Raymond contributes regularly to the Huffington Post, and has written for The New York Times Brief Guide to Essential Knowledge, The Mirror, In Newsweekly, and The Boston Reader. He lives in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Table of Contents
Introduction: First Sight 1
1 An Agreeable Proposal 5
2 A Modest Interruption 33
3 The Writer's Table… and Other Passions 67
4 The Remover of Obstacles 103
5 Provincetown, Poker, and Friends 133
6 Building a Castle in the Forest 163
7 Mail, Media, and Matters of Men 195
8 Shifts 225
9 Days Out… and the Secret Book 245
10 Long Afternoons 283
11 Keeping November Open 309
12 The Red Dory 331
Acknowledgments 341
What People are Saying About This
Harry Evans
“Dwayne Raymond adds another dimension to our appreciation of a great man’s genius, the paradoxes of his genial belligerence, his obstinacy at once maddening and endearing, and his unaffected originality. This is a fascinating touching memoir, and often funny too.”
Doris Kearns Goodwin
“In this moving memoir, Dwayne Raymond provides an intimate look at the daily routine of a great writer in the last years of his life. Raymond poignantly describes how Mailer fought like a lion to continue writing even as age and illness slowed him down.”
Tom Piazza
“Mornings With Mailer is a tender and affectionate view of the protean author at the end of the Big Novel that was his life. Dwayne Raymond’s book offers a uniquely intimate perspective on one of our literary giants. Applause.”
