Mailer Spins

Looks like there's a little controversy brewing over the purchase of Norman Mailer's mistress' saucy archives by Harvard.  A family friend is claiming that Harvard's purchase of the allegedly salacious material was sour grapes after the university lost out on the writer's papers to the University of Texas.  Not so, says Harvard:

But according to Leslie A. Morris, Harvard’s curator of modern books and manuscripts, Harvard did not purchase Mallory’s archive as a retaliatory act.

“Anger is not a part of the purchasing of this archive,” she sai.

Harvard was never in negotiation with Mailer about his papers, according to Morris.

Dealers are aware that Harvard is not a “big league player” when it comes to the purchasing of multi-million dollar collections like Mailer’s, Morris said, adding that the collection was “too expensive for Harvard to even consider.”

Harvard libraries only use endowed funds to purchase collections, Morris said. While these funds have increased over the past years, so has the price of contemporary literary collections.

Morris said that the purchasing of manuscripts, rare books, and collections is not the highest priority for the University. With other competing interests and the procedural difficulty of making a purchase, such buys are more complex than they seem, according to Morris.

Morris said it is understandable for Mailer to have chosen to sell his documents to the University of Texas.

“Money is always a consideration,” Morris said. “Whether or not it’s the most important one is a very individual decision.”