Talk:The Executioner's Song

Classification as fiction vs. nonfiction
Pace the last line of the article's first paragraph, Mailer's 1974 book "The Fight" isn't a novel; it's a nonfiction recounting of the "Rumble in the Jungle," the 1973 heavyweight title bout between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire, Africa. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.249.163.117 (talk) 17:25, 17 January 2019 (UTC)

As the novel won the Pulitzer for fiction, I removed the reference to its being a nonfictional novel for now--though I agree that it's on the line, so maybe a more qualified version can be put in later? dvyost 15:47, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

The cover of the 1980 paperback edition proclaims it a "true life novel" on the front and "fiction" on the spine. It is classified as a work of fiction by the Library of Congress. Mapjc (talk) 18:57, 9 June 2012 (UTC)

Potential References/Sources for Article
I'm not exactly sure how to format Wikipedia references; and am not up to the task, at the moment, of utilizing these references/sources in the article. That said: I found these - they look to be quite relevant - and this article's flagged because it doesn't cite any articles or sources. Thought I'd leave them here, if anyone wants to pursue! Hedonistbot4000 (talk) 03:29, 11 May 2012 (UTC)


 * 1. Mailer, Cannibals and Christians, p.131. (The Executioner's Song is a title of a poem on page 131 of this book.)


 * 2. Manso, Mailer: His Life and Times, pp.584-585. (Mailer went to Utah in June 1977 and returned seven times over the following nine months to interview the friends, families, lawyers, civil rights activists, and legislators involved in the story.)


 * 3. Jean Radford, 'Norman Mailer: The True Story of an American Writer" in American Fiction: New Readings, ed. by Richard Gray (London, 1983) p.232.


 * 4. Andrew Wilson, Norman Mailer: An American Aesthetic, Peter Lang publishing, 2008. 272 pages. ISBN 978-3-03911-406-1. Chapter Nine, The Executioner's Song: Western Vernacular. Chapter Nine begins at page 203.

An outstanding novel that deserves an expanded account
This is Mailer's 'great American novel' that he hoped to write and didn't recognise he had written. It is prosaic that he ended his writing career dealing with an account of a Jesus and ancient Egyptian politics when his masterpiece was the dark, leafy suburban streets of the midwest. This work grows in significance with each passing year. It is easily one of the best ten novels of the US twentieth century. I hope someone can flesh this entry out.

Could I suggest sections on the interview process, Schiller's ringleader involvement, negotiations with Mailer etc, since these contributions will identify the novel's importance and put to rest the fact/fiction - new journalism debate and focus attention on the genius of this novel, as well as demonstrating how a great novel is always factual in every sense and so factual in terms of human experience.

Good ideas for expanding the article. For the present, I make a simpler suggestion: Currently, the article mentions Schiller in passing, toward the end, and doesn't even make clear what his role was. My understanding is that he (Schiller) did virtually all of the in-depth interviewing, and provided that to Mailer as the source material for the book. So it would be more appropriate simply to mention that role at the very beginning of the article. The 2nd sentence of the article could be something like, "The source material for the novel came from Lawrence Schiller, a producer, screenwriter, and photographer who had conducted hundreds of hours of interviews with Gillmore, et al., and provided the transcripts to Mailer." There are 2 good sources for that assertion: (1) The Foreword, by Dave Eggers, that appears in later editions of the novel; (2) The article, "My Three Stooges," by Tom Wolfe, that appears in his collection, "Hooking Up." 68.229.49.122 (talk) 07:11, 15 January 2016 (UTC)