Smackdown! Roth vs. Mailer

Quarrels, fights, battles, and disagreements often characterize much of the action in Roth’s writing. But an actual incident that nearly saw him come to blows with Norman Mailer occurred in the fall of 1972 when Roth defended Alan Lelchuk and a scene in his novel American Mischief (1973). The encounter occurred in a New York law office and was reported not only in the New York Times but on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. This essay outlines the causes, the pugilists, the referees, and the outcome, an incident where ego transcended literary value and anger competed with freedom of speech. The article also traces the long-standing, antagonistic nature of the Roth/Mailer association, which Roth continued in The Counter-life (1986) but partially softened in Exit Ghost (2007).