J. Michael Lennon

Photo Credit: © Christina Pabst

J. Michael Lennon is the late Norman Mailer’s archivist, editor, and authorized biographer. He has written/edited several books about him, including: Pieces and Pontifications (1982); Critical Essays on Norman (1986); Conversations with Norman Mailer (1988); Norman Mailer: Works and Days (2000); The Spooky Art: Thoughts on Writing (2003), and (with Mailer) On God: An Uncommon Conversation (2007). His biography, Norman Mailer: A Double Life (Simon and Schuster), appeared in 2013, and in 2014 he edited Selected Letters of Norman Mailer (Random House). He has also edited The James Jones Reader (1991), and was co-producer of the 1985 PBS documentary, James Jones: From Reveille to Taps, and the executive producer of the 1991 PBS documentary, The Lincolns of Springfield, Illinois. His work has appeared in Paris ReviewNew Yorker, New York, TLS, Mailer Review, New England Review, Hippocampus, Creative Nonfiction, NYRB, Journal of Modern Literature, Modern Language Studies, Narrative and Provincetown Arts, among others. The current president of the Norman Mailer Society and chair of the editorial board of the Mailer Review, he also serves on the boards of the James Jones Literary Society and the Norman Mailer Center. The co-founder (with Bonnie Culver) of the Wilkes MA/MFA Program, he has taught in it since 2005. Prior to that he was the Provost at Wilkes from 1992-2000, and the chair of the Humanities Division from 2003-05. From 1972-1992, he was a faculty member and administrator at the University of Illinois-Springfield. He received his B.A. from Stonehill College, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Rhode Island. Currently, he is working on a new biographical narrative with the working title “Sixteen Handshakes to Shakespeare: From Bishop to the Bard.”