Norman Mailer: "Salinger was the greatest mind ever to stay in prep school."
Hemingway and Faulkner occasionally took snide and snarky potshots at each other. Authors and artists can be petty. When I came across Mailer's remark today I reflected on other works like "Franny and Zoe" and "A Perfect Day for Banana Fish" and decided that Mailer's observation was inaccurate. Apparently for a period Mailer and Henry Miller rented apartments in the same Brooklyn brownstone and as they passed one another in the hallway each would think of the other "oh, he will never amount to anything." I read that "The Death of a Salesman" was written in 6 weeks. Stephen Crane's "Red Badge of Courage" was written in 10 days flat. Various novelists say they can complete a novel in six months. Annie Proulx worked six months on her short story "Brokeback Mountain."
