This chapter explores the friendship between Ellison and the writer Albert Murray after 1962, commenting on Murray's personal and intellectual importance to Ellison in the 60s, the later distance that seems to have developed between them, and Murray's work on behalf of Ellison's legacy. It also illustrates the differences between them by exploring their differing approaches to critiquring Norman Mailer.

Mailer wrote thousands of letters over the course of his lifetime. Indeed, many have commented on the generosity he displayed via his correspondence, taking time to personally respond to inquiries from aspiring writers and admirers. He wrote to family, to friends, to editors, to fellow authors, and to critics, sharing ideas, philosophies, anecdotes, and advice. The publication of Selected Letters of Norman Mailer in 2015 provides another view of Mailer’s engagement with the literary world and with American culture, and provides additional biographical context that enriches our understanding of his writing.

This chapter addresses Mailer’s sometimes combative but always interesting friendships and feuds with writers and intellectuals like Gore Vidal, William F. Buckley, William Styron, James Jones, and Diana Trilling. These stormy relationships offer examples of Mailer’s embrace of both verbal and physical sparring, and his willingness to engage in debate with individuals “on the other side of the aisle,” his fraught friendship with Buckley being a prime example of this.