Jack and Norman

Guest: Jerome Loving, PhD, Distinguished Professor of English, Texas A&M University In 1981, Pulitzer-prize winning author Norman Mailer helped a convicted killer get out of prison on parole, largely because Mailer was so impressed with the inmate’s writing skills. Mailer even helped the prisoner get a book deal about growing up in the US prison system. And then, just six weeks after getting out of prison – the night before a glowing review of the book appeared in the New York Times – that prisoner, Jack Abbott, killed a New York City waiter and fled to Mexico.  It was a shocking turn of events that changed the conversation about US prisons and programs meant to help rehabilitate prisoners. It also brought condemnation down on Norman Mailer and other New York elites who made Jack Abbott a literary “It Boy” and seemed to ignore the fact that Abbott was also deeply disturbed. Jerome Loving details the story and its impact in his new book, “Jack and Norman.”