Former faculty member J. Michael Lennon to discuss authorized biography on Norman Mailer

WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speakers Series presents a discussion titled “Norman Mailer: A Double Life” featuring author and former Sangamon State University (now UIS) instructor J. Michael Lennon.

WHEN: Monday, March 10, 2014 at 7 p.m.

WHERE: UIS Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library

DETAILS: In his book, Norman Mailer: A Double Life, Lennon presents the definitive portrait of one of the most important and controversial figures in American literary and cultural life in the second half of the twentieth century. As the authorized biographer Lennon knew his subject for decades and had unfettered access to Mailer’s voluminous papers, unpublished letters, family members, and acquaintances.

Lennon is Emeritus Vice President for Academic Affairs and Emeritus Professor of English at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania. In addition to being chair of the editorial board of The Mailer Review, he has written or edited several books about and with Mailer, including Norman Mailer’s Letters on An American Dream, 1963-69; Norman Mailer: Works and Days; Conversations with Norman Mailer; and Critical Essays on Norman Mailer.

He is the past president of both the Norman Mailer Society and the James Jones Literary Society and serves on the board of both organizations. From 2005-2007, he was a literary consultant to the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas-Austin, where he assisted in the cataloguing of Mailer’s papers, and was a Fellow there in 2009. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Paris Review, Playboy, Provincetown Arts, New York, Modern Language Studies, Chicago Tribune, and New England Review, among other publications. He lives in Westport, Massachusetts.

Lennon will conduct a book signing after the lecture. Copies of Norman Mailer: A Double Life will be available for purchase at this event.