SOURCE: "Norman Mailer's Early Nonfiction: The Art of Self-Revelation," in Western Humanities Review, Vol. 28, 1974, pp. 1-12.

In the following essay, Merrill offers critical examination of Mailer's nonfiction essays, including "Superman Comes to the Supermarket," "The White Negro," and "Ten Thousand Words a Minute."

It has become a commonplace—unavoidable at cocktail parties, student bars, even the dinner table—that Norman Mailer's real achievement is to be found in his nonfiction. There, it is argued, we come upon Mailer "happily mired in reality, hobbled to the facts of time, place, self, as to an indispensable spouse of flesh and blood who continually saves him from his other self that yearns toward wasteful flirtations with Spiritus Mundi." If it seems a bit harsh to describe Mailer's novels as "wasteful flirtations with Spiritus Mundi," many of us would still agree with Richard Foster's basic point: Mailer's nonfiction is a pleasant subject...