‘TO ROSLYN TARG CHEERS & SALUTATIONS! NORMAN MAILER”: INSCRIBED BY NORMAN MAILER, SCARCE PRESENTATION FIRST EDITION OF THE NAKED AND THE DEAD, WITH LAID-IN TYPED LETTER AND TYPED NOTE, BOTH SIGNED BY MAILER

MAILER, Norman. Naked and the Dead. New York and Toronto: Rinehart, (1948). Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

First edition of Mailer’s landmark first novel—“the best war novel to emerge from the United States”—a scarce presentation copy inscribed on the title page to leading New York literary agent, “To Roslyn Targ Cheers & salutations! Norman Mailer,” accompanied by a 1981 typed letter on his letterhead and signed by him to Targ and a 1981 typed note also signed by him to Targ, along with two letterhead envelopes addressed in typescript to Targ at her agency. In his note, Mailer especially objects to a recent book on Marilyn Monroe, writing—”I think it’s bogus.”

Norman Mailer, who “loomed over American letters longer and larger than any writer of his generation… burst on the scene in 1948 with The Naked and the Dead” (New York Times). It is considered “Mailer’s best, and certainly the best war novel to emerge from the United States” (Burgess, 42-3). This exceptionally scarce presentation copy of Naked and the Dead is inscribed by Mailer to renowned literary agent Roslyn Siegel Targ, whose agency represented writers such as Henry Roth, J.D. Salinger and F.Scott Fitzgerald. When Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis began her career in publishing, she turned to Roslyn Targ, who recommended a manuscript by Nancy Zaroulis, Call the Darkness Light (1979). Trusting Targ’s judgment, “she aquired it as her first novel for Doubleday” (Kuhn, Reading Jackie, 150). Accompanying this inscribed copy are a typed note and a typed letter to Targ from Mailer, in which he objects to a book on Marilyn Monroe by Hans Lembourn, Diary of a Lover of Marilyn Monroe (1977), saying “I think’s it’s bogus.” Mailer would follow his own controversial 1973 biography of Monroe by co-authoring another work on Monroe, Of Women and Their Elegance (1980), which he mentions in his note to Targ, and its 1986 stage adaption, Strawhead.

The text of the typed note (3 by 8-1/2 inches) signed by Mailer, with inkstamp, “Received Jan 29 1981,” reads: “Dear Ros, Just a line to wish Happy New Year to you and Bill and tell you I hope you do well with Of Women and Their Elegance in Spain and Portugal. I went through Diary of a Lover of Marilyn Monroe, and you know, I think it’s bogus. He certainly has read all the books that I’ve read on Marilyn, including mine, and he’s digested them very well, and they keep reappearing in his impressions of her. Do you know anything about the background? I am curious as hell. Cheers, [signed] Norman.” The text of the letter typed on Mailer’s letterhead (7-1/4 by 10-1/2 inches) and signed by him, with inkstamp, “Received Feb 23 1981,” reads: “17 February 1981. Dear Ros, I didn’t mean to agitate you that much on Lembourn. When I said it was bogus, I didn’t mean that he pulled off the literary scandal of the year, just that I suspect he may not have known Marilyn nearly as well as he claimed. After all, how is one going to prove that? Anyway, it’s no great matter. I certainly didn’t mean to impugn your integrity. It’s just a hunch, and I have nothing to back it up with. Regards to you and yours, [signed] Norman.” These are accompanied by two letterhead envelopes (each 4 by 7-1/2 inches) with canceled stamps and postmarks. The first is addressed to Targ at the her agency. One is addressed in a manuscript hand and contains a Post Office inkstamp of “Addressee unknown,” indicating its return to sender, along with penciled notes on the envelope recto: “Sorry for the error” and “Judith—need an address,” along with a penciled phone number of “582-4210” and “Suite 1932.” The second envelope is addressed in typescript to Targ at her agency on “250 West 57 Street, Suite 1932” in New York. First edition, first issue with Rinehart colophon on copyright page; first issue dust jacket without reviews on rear flap. The wife of noted editor William Targ, Roslyn Targ was well-known not only for her literary acumen but also for her “glamour, and she was beloved by luminaries like Italo Calvino, Roth, Samuel Beckett, Erich Maria Remarque, Henry Miller and Saul Bellow” (New York Observer).

A fine presentation copy and accompanying typed letter, typed note and letterhead envelopes, all with a very memorable provenance.