The Prince is Dead, Long Live the Prince

In his eulogy to Norman Mailer, who died yesterday, Associated Press writer Richard Pyle called the writer "the pugnacious prince of American letters." The controversial author was called many things by many people through the years, a large number of them not flattering. But there's little doubt that he left an indelible mark on the American writing scene. His first novel, The Naked and the Dead, based on his own experiences in World War II, certainly made a deep impression on how I, a postwar, boomer view war. When a king's death is acknowledged, the phrase "long live the king" refers, of course, to his successor. With Mailer there is unlikely to be a successor. So, long live "the pugnacious prince of American letters" in our memories and in the annals of American Literature.