''The Presidential Papers'' is a collection of essays, interviews, poems, open letters to political figures, and magazine pieces written by

Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American writer, journalist and filmmaker. In a career spanning more than six decades, Mailer had 11 best-selling books, at least ...

, published in 1963 by

G.P. Putnam's Sons G. P. Putnam's Sons is an American book publisher based in New York City, New York (state), New York. Since 1996, it has been an Imprint (trade name), imprint of the Penguin Group. History The company began as Wiley & Putnam with the 1838 part ...

. It is, by Mailer's own admission, similar in structure and purpose to '' Advertisements for Myself'', albeit with a relatively stronger focus on contemporary politics, although many other topics are touched upon. The book covers such topics as

scatology In medicine and biology, scatology or coprology is the study of faeces. Scatological studies allow one to determine a wide range of biological information about a creature, including its diet (and thus where it has been), health and diseases ...

totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and completely controls the public s ...

aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...

fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...

, the

1960 Democratic National Convention The 1960 Democratic National Convention was held in Los Angeles, California, on July 11–15, 1960. It nominated Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts for president and Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas for vice president. In ...

in Los Angeles,

Jean Genet Jean Genet (; ; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels '' The Th ...

's 1958 play '' The Blacks'', juvenile delinquency,

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American writer, book editor, and socialite who served as the first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A popular f ...

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...

masturbation Masturbation is a form of autoeroticism in which a person Sexual stimulation, sexually stimulates their own Sex organ, genitals for sexual arousal or other sexual pleasure, usually to the point of orgasm. Stimulation may involve the use of han ...

, and others.

Reception

In 1964

Midge Decter Midge Decter (née Rosenthal; July 25, 1927 – May 9, 2022) was an American journalist and author. Originally a liberal, she was one of the pioneers of the neoconservative movement in the 1970s and 1980s. She was a critic of feminism and the w ...

published a review in ''Commentary'' which praised Mailer's earnest observation but criticised his "intellectual brashness." Despite chastising Mailer for not being "sufficiently respectful toward the history of man's difficulties with the problems raised in 'The Presidential Papers''" Decter nonetheless concluded her review by claiming "no one else is telling us more about the United States of America." In reviewing Mailer's personal political stance of 'left-conservativism,' Cyrus Zirakzadeh concluded that ''The Presidential Paperss most significant insight was that the United States has remained formally democratic but nonetheless developed a 'totalitarian culture,' a discussion found in The Ninth Presidential Paper. The primary culprit for this totalitarian culture is a technology-centered '

corporate capitalism In social science and economics, corporate capitalism is a capitalist marketplace characterized by the dominance of hierarchical and bureaucratic corporations. Overview In the developed world, corporations dominate the marketplace, compri ...

' where employees become 'sycophants' for their employers, representing a serious threat to individual freedom. What results is a managed, predictable economic order that threatens the United States' unique history of opportunity, risk and fluid social structure.

References

1963 non-fiction books 1963 poetry books Books by Norman Mailer Essays about politics American essay collections Books of interviews Collections of letters American poetry books G. P. Putnam's Sons books {{poli-essay-stub