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Old Paragraph During a November 1960 party celebrating his mayoral candidacy, American public intellectual Norman Mailer twice stabbed his wife Adele Morales with a pen-knife in a drunken altercation, nearly taking her life. The incident, though by many accounts swept under the rug by Mailer and his associates, had a lasting impact on his public and critical legacy and persona.[citation needed]

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Early in the morning of November 20, 1960, the American writer, novelist, and filmmaker Norman Mailer stabbed his second wife, artist and actress Adele Morales, in the abdomen and then in the back with a penknife, nearly taking her life.^[1] The drunken assault happened at the end of a party the couple hosted the night before to announce Mailer’s mayoral candidacy. Mailer spent several days in Bellevue Hospital due to a court-order and was charged with felonious assault. Morales, however, did not press charges, which allowed Mailer to plead guilty to third-degree assault and a suspended sentence. Mailer continued to receive critical acclaim after the incident, including winning two Pulitzer Prizes.^[2][3]

Comment from Elaine: I corrected a typo and removed the word "several" from the last sentence. Original read like this, "The incident lacked several legal or professional consequences for Mailer as he continued to receive critical acclaim." As I am typing this, I am wondering if that was supposed to be the word "severe?"

Elaine, I like your thought here. I would like to see the word severe be added to, but then it does make me think of an emotional emphasis and can deviate from the neutral tone. I think you did well in omitting the word, severe from the sentence. Wik1mar456 (talk) 16:21, 13 April 2025 (UTC)

Comment: Added additional source and reworded the short description to eliminate some bias. The article shows no real example of Mailer receiving significant criticism, so I removed that section. ===

Added an additional source. To make the article more neutral, I added a description to who she was beyond being his wife since he is not just described as her husband and as he had six wives through his life, it also needs to be specified that she was his second.

In 1940, Adele Morales moved to Greenwich Village, a neighborhood in Manhattan, New York,^[4] known for its association with the arts, music, political activism, sexuality^[5] and drug use.^[6] As a single woman active in the local art and literary scene, Morales worked as a painter and studied under Hans Hofmann.^[4]

Through mutual acquaintances,^[4] Morales was introduced to Norman Mailer, who published his first novel, The Naked and The Dead, gaining notability amongst his literary peers,^[4] in 1951.

Morales and Mailer became very popular by attending parties and engaging in cultural experimentation: drug use and non-traditional sexual encounters.  Morales and Mailer’s relationship was also engrossed with volatility and public domestic disputes, categorized as “endless abuse.”^[4] Despite their relationship dynamic, Morales and Mailer married in 1954 and had two children, Danielle and Elizabeth Anne Mailer by 1960.^[4]

In Peter Manso’s Biography Mailer,^[4] Barbara Mailer, Norman’s sister, explained the Village culture during the 1960s:

“It was the fashion to push things to their ultimate extreme—all kinds of sexual and drug experimentation. Once, at a party . . . someone put LSD into my drink, and I went home and woke up seeing things. I thought I was going crazy until someone phoned later and asked how I liked my acid trip. It was the beginning of the Sixties, really . . . it was all very violent . . . I did not like being part of it . . . but one sensed that it was all getting out of hand.”^[4]

During the 60's, Mailer faced criticism, from some of his peers, who believed that his later works did not live up to The Naked and The Dead, while Morales became involved within the Actors Studio. Mailer continued to engage in the social scene and assist at the Actors Studio as well.^[4]

The culture and lifestyle of Morales and Mailer, contributed to the tensions between the couple that led to the incident on November 19^th, 1960.

Note: Please let me know if you all like this or if you would like to me to add/change something. - T.Harrell

Note from Elaine: Hi Terrell! I think this is a good addition. It is important to give background information in order for readers to see the whole picture. I noticed a couple of minor typos, so I went ahead and fixed them. I think the information about Greenwich Village and the 60s culture should come before the paragraph about the criticism of Mailer's work at the time, though.

Note from Terrell: Greetings, Elaine; thanks for the feedback. I also fixed some things and moved some paragraphs around, including the one you mentioned. I am considering taking out the passage that I have italicized. What do you think? We have enough information that leads up to the event. Do their other activities need to be mentioned?

Note from Terrell: What do you all think about the first passage? I have changed it a couple of times? I think I am overthinking it. Any feedback?

Note from Sherrill Edwards: Terrell, I like how this is coming together. In the section you italicized for possible deletion, you could work in the part about Morales and the Actors Studio into the first paragraph (e.g., "... Morales studied painting under Hans Hofman and acting at the Actors Studio"). Keeping at least a mention of the acting part would also set us up for the new concluding sentence I proposed quoting Adele's daughter.

I also think you might be able to shorten Barbara Mailer's quotation by taking out the two middle sentences, which would yield: "It was the fashion to push things to their ultimate extreme--all kinds of sexual and drug experimentation ... It was the beginning of the Sixties, really ... it was all very violent ... I did not like being part of it ... but one sensed that it was all getting out of hand."

Note from Chelsey: I corrected a minor typo in the first paragraph ("studying" to "studied") and changed "1960's" to "1960s". On a separate note... while the section below is well-written, I could see how it might come across as a little editorial or sensationalized to some reader ("engrossed with volatility"). What are your thoughts on rephrasing it slightly to better fit Wikipedia’s neutral tone and attribution guidelines? Here’s what I had in mind:

Original: Morales and Mailer’s relationship was also engrossed with volatility and public domestic disputes, categorized as "endless abuse".

Proposed Change: Morales and Mailer's relationship was marked by frequent volatility and public disputes. Frank Corsaro, a director at the Actors Studio who worked with both, recalled that “between the two of them they used to abuse each other endlessly.”^[4]

Note from Kimberly: I'm wondering if Barbara's quote needs to be paraphrased, since large block quotes seem not to be encouraged? Also, lot of this section comes from one source. I think some of my articles have some of these references, so I might swap some of these out so that there is more variety, if that is okay. I also don't know that the italicized paragraph adds to the section. I agree with Chelsey's suggestions, but I think the last sentence may be non neutral. I say let the facts speak for themselves. I also wonder if some rearranging would allow this to flow a bit better.

Proposed Change: In 1940, Adele Morales moved to Greenwich Village, a neighborhood in Manhattan, New York,^[4] known for its association with the arts, music, political activism, sexuality^[5] and drug use.^[6] In Peter Manso’s biography Mailer, Barbara Mailer, Norman’s sister, explained the Village culture during the 1960s as people testing the furthest limits on sex and drug use. She recounted an incident where LSD was added to her drink unknowingly to her until someone asked her later about her experience.^[4]

As a single woman active in the local art and literary scene, Morales worked as a painter and studied under Hans Hofmann. Through mutual acquaintances, Morales was introduced to Norman Mailer, who in 1951 published his first novel, The Naked and The Dead, gaining notability amongst his literary peers.^[4]

Morales and Mailer became very popular by attending parties and engaging in cultural experimentation: drug use and non-traditional sexual encounters. Their relationship was marked by frequent volatility and public disputes. Frank Corsaro, a director at the Actors Studio who worked with both, recalled that “between the two of them they used to abuse each other endlessly.”^[4]

Morales and Mailer married in 1954 and had two children, Danielle and Elizabeth Anne Mailer, by 1960.^[4]

Note from Terrell: Feedback posted on group page

See User:MATPW Lynn/sandbox2 for details about old and new content.

Norman Mailer, and his wife, Adele Morales, hosted a large party the evening of November 19, 1960, at their five-room apartment at 250 West 94th Street on the Upper West Side. Mailer wanted to run for Mayor of New York City and informally announce his candidacy at the party, using it as a venue to show his political strategy to "meld the dispossessed" with "social, political, and artistic elite[s]." He asked his friend George Plimpton to invite some prominent city officials to mix with a large group of disadvantaged persons from the city.

While an estimated 100-300 people came to the party, few prominent individuals attended. Instead of the two diverse groups being impressed by being brought together by Mailer, a volatile mix dominated by drunken, increasingly disruptive partiers roiled. As the atmosphere darkened into violence, Mailer himself joined in and challenged multiple individuals to fights. The scene was so chaotic that people started to leave, fearing not only general violence but force from Mailer himself.

NOTE: Because I am including the old sentences, their sources appear here too. Later, after others have had a chance to review what I've done, I will delete them, as well as the other details below here.

Old sentence: On the night of November 19, 1960, Mailer and his wife, Adele Morales, hosted a party, intended to launch his proposed New York mayoral campaign, at their apartment at 250 West 94th Street on the Upper West Side.^[7]

New sentence: Norman Mailer, and his wife, Adele Morales, hosted a large party the evening of November 19, 1960, at their five-room apartment at 250 West 94th Street on the Upper West Side.^[7]

Comment: I wanted to write the first sentence in a more neutral way that does not center the campaign yet. However, the previous news article did give the address so I reused that source.

Old sentence: Mailer had enlisted his well-connected friend, journalist George Plimpton, to attract figures from the city's "power structure"; he hoped to unite at his party this elite echelon with the "disenfranchised" population he saw as his natural constituency—having written of the "courage" of hoodlums in his 1957 essay "The White Negro"—into a voting base that would propel him to office.^[8]

New sentences: Mailer wanted to run for Mayor of New York City and informally announce his candidacy at the party, using it as a venue to show his political strategy to "meld the dispossessed" with "social, political, and artistic elite[s]."^[9] He asked his friend George Plimpton to invite some prominent city officials to mix with a large group of disadvantaged persons from the city.^[10]

Comment: The source I was using didn't connect the candidacy to The White Negro, so I didn't use it.

Quotation to accompany citation 3: "If Mailer's political platform was dubious, his constituency was even more so. Mailer wanted to meld the dispossessed of the city--junkies, prostitutes, victims of police brutality, the whole 'Third World' of New York--with the social, political, and artistic elite in whose circles he traveled."

Quotation to accompany citation 4: "George Plimpton remembers that on the afternoon, while he was watching the Yale-Harvard football game on television, mailer kept calling him. He wanted Plimpton to bring several people to the party that night. 'He wanted people in power,' recalls Plimpton. 'He wanted to impress his constituency. The fire commissioner. The police commissioner. ... There were about seven of them in all, and they all had positions which Norman felt would enhance him in the eyes of this vast other group he had invited to the party, a sort of Third World that he wanted to represent in his mayoralty campaign."

Old sentence: Though David Rockefeller and the Aga Khan declined the invitation, the party's approximately 200 guests included the poet Allen Ginsberg as well as several "derelicts, cut-throats and bohemians"—many of them homeless—whom Mailer had recruited on the street.^[11][12]

New sentences: While an estimated 100-300 people came to the party, few were prominent.^[13] Instead of the two diverse groups being impressed by being brought together by Mailer, a volatile mix dominated by drunken, increasingly disruptive individuals roiled.^[14]

Comment: Changed primary quotations with inflammatory language to facts from a biography.

Quotation to accompany citations 7&8: "Anywhere from a hundred to three hundred people were milling through the rooms at various times, and among the literary people, boxers, minor politicians, and fringe figures only a few recognizable celebrities such as actor Anthony Franciosa could be spotted ... As George Plimpton recalls, 'None of the powerful people came, and Norman's constituency, who probably wouldn't have cared anyway, got drunk. The party was an utter disaster; the thought must have been running through Norman's head at the time.' As the party wore on and the drinking got heavier, an undercurrent of violence began to develop ... By midnight Mailer, sensing his lack of control, became increasingly belligerent."

Old sentence: This produced an atmosphere characterized by later commentators as, at best, "legendarily tetchy" and, at worst, "the most dangerous evening I've ever spent in my life" (from publisher Barney Rosset, a guest at the party).^[15][16]

New sentence: As the atmosphere darkened into violence, Mailer himself joined in and challenged multiple individuals to fights.^[17][18] The scene was so chaotic that people started to leave, fearing not only general violence but force from Mailer himself.^[19][20]

Comment: Changed primary quotations and name-dropping to facts from a biography.

Quotation to accompany citation 11: "Alson also recalls that people at the party kept coming up to Mailer and challenging him to fight. He responded, and the threat of violence was soon beginning to emanate from Mailer himself. He went down to the street and tried to provide his ex-boxer friend Roger Donoghue into a fight even though the party had been held partly in honor of Donoghue's birthday. Other friends were also challenged to fight."

Quotation to accompany citation 12: "Plimpton describes a scene of mayhem on the street below. 'When one left the party, there was Mailer down on the street fighting people as they came out of the apartment house,' he remembers."

Quotation to accompany citation 13: "Lewis and Jay Allen, sensing the violence, also decided to leave. 'The party was getting very rough,' says Lew Allen, 'and Norman was being very belligerent. When Jay and I left the party, he rode down in the elevator with us to get us a cab. He was very high-strung and got in a fight with someone in the elevator who wasn't even from the party. He had a bloody nose by this point.' Norman Podhoretz concurs that the atmosphere had turned sour. 'It was a very ugly night. There was a lot of bad feelings in the air, most of it emanating from Mailer."

Quotation to accompany citation 14: "Only a handful of people were left by about 4:30 A.M., when a very drunk Mailer walked in from the street with a black eye, a torn lip, and blood all over his fancy bullfighter's shirt."

NOTE: I'm aware that the third paragraph might cross over with the material I have in the second paragraph. I'm happy to adjust as makes sense for the piece as a whole.--Sherrill Edwards

New Sentences: Throughout the night, fights broke out. Mailer, reportedly intoxicated,^[21] was described as dividing guests "on opposite sides of the room according to he considered them 'for' or 'against' him". Later, almost incoherent, Mailer left the apartment to seek trouble elsewhere. Morales recalled that "he'd been punching people, down in the street. He didn't know who he was, he didn't know what his name was. He was so out of it." ^[22][23][24]

Old Sentences: Fights broke out throughout the night. By some accounts, Norman Mailer at one point divided guests "on opposite sides of the room according to whether he considered them 'for' or 'against' him". Later, almost incoherent, Mailer left the apartment to seek trouble elsewhere. Morales recalled that "he was down in the street punching people...He didn't know what his name was. He was so out of it".[5][4]

Comment: Added additional citation providing evidence that Mailer was drunk. Changed first sentence by acknowledging that it was an account and not a fact.

Updated the Adele Morales quote from Norman Mailer: The American.—Josiehadaway (talk) 23:22, 14 April 2025 (UTC)

NOTE: Added Citations to 'New Sentences' sections. -THarrell

What do the sources about Greenwich Village show here? Originally, the quote from Morales was attributed to Norman Mailer: The American. I will add the documentary source back to our draft.—Josiehadaway (talk) 20:57, 14 April 2025 (UTC)

New Sentences When Mailer returned to the apartment at 4:30 a.m., most of the guests had departed with "five" or "six" in the dining room. Morales was getting ready for bed when the altercation broke out. Mailer burst into the room, and Morales taunted his heterosexual masculinity and made a disparaging reference to his mistress.[2][5] Mailer then stabbed her with a rusty two-and-a-half-inch penknife, once in the back and once through her breast, puncturing her cardiac sac and narrowly missing her heart. Mailer reportedly said to the guests, "Don't touch her. Let the bitch die".[5]^[24] Morales was rushed downstairs to the apartment of novelist Doc Humes and then in a taxi cab to University Hospital for surgery.[6]

Old Sentences When Mailer returned at 4:30 a.m. to find all the guests departed (except the "five or six" who remained in the dining room) and Morales getting ready for bed, the altercation broke out. The enraged Mailer burst into the room, and Morales taunted his heterosexual masculinity and made a disparaging reference to his mistress.[2][5] Mailer rushed at her, stabbing her with a rusty two-and-a-half-inch penknife, once in the back and once through her breast, puncturing her cardiac sac and narrowly missing her heart. Mailer addressed the shocked guests standing over Morales's prostrate body: "Don't touch her. Let the bitch die".[5] Morales was rushed downstairs to the apartment of novelist Doc Humes and then in a taxi cab to University Hospital for surgery.[6]

Comment: Removed bias words like "enraged" and "shocked."

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While Morales remained in critical condition, she initially told doctors that she had fallen on glass, thus denying any involvement of Mailer. Mailer came to the hospital later that night and reportedly spoke with Morales' surgeon about her wound. The following day, Mailer appeared on The Mike Wallace Show. He spoke of the knife as a symbol for manhood and continued to campaign for mayor.^[25]

Old Sentences:

While she remained in critical condition, Morales initially told doctors that she "had fallen on some glass", denying any wrongdoing on the part of Mailer, who had come to the hospital later that night to "lecture Adele's surgeon on the likely dimensions of her wound". Mailer appeared the next day in a scheduled interview on The Mike Wallace Show, where he spoke of the knife as a symbol of manhood and continued to plug his mayoral bid.

Comment: I removed biased language like "lectured" and "continued to plug."

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New Sentences:

Two days later, while still in intensive care, Marales told the police that Mailer stabbed her. Mailer was arrested at the hospital and committed to Bellevue Hospital for 17 days for psychological evaluation. The judge pronounced him "both homicidal and suicidal." Mailer maintained he was sane, stating "his work will be perceived differently if he were considered to have a disordered mind."

Old Sentences:

Two days later, in the hospital's intensive care unit, Morales admitted to police that Mailer had stabbed her. He was arrested at the hospital and involuntarily committed for 17 days to Bellevue Hospital for psychiatric evaluation by a judge, who pronounced him "both homicidal and suicidal". Mailer maintained his sanity, responding, "It is very important to me not to be sent to some mental institution. I'm a sane man. If this happens, for the rest of my life, my work will be considered as the work of a man with a disordered mind".

Comment: Removed bias words, such as admitted and involuntary committed. Neutralized language. Fixed quotation mark error.

Sentence below possible addition to this area under one of the last two paragraphs in this section.

Although, she was known for her being, Norman Mailer's wife, she spent her remaining years in a Manhattan in a small spaced home.^[26]

Wik1mar456 (talk) 02:51, 9 April 2025 (UTC)

Another source found briefly discusses Stabbing incident^[27]Wik1mar456 (talk) 17:32, 13 April 2025 (UTC)

Abigail L.: Source Info - I found this source from one of Norman Mailer's children, Susan Mailer from one of Mailer's exes. I believe Susan's mother's name is Beatrice. There is a small section that discusses briefly the stabbing of Adele Morales.^[28]

Would this be an appropriate source to include?

This would be the possible quote I would add,

Wik1mar456 (talk) 17:13, 13 April 2025 (UTC)

Proposed new last sentence to end article (Sherrill Edwards):

Shortly after Adele Morales' death, her daughter explained: "She wanted to be remembered as a gifted painter and actress and as a mother who was fiercely devoted to her (two) girls,” Danielle Mailer said, while acknowledging that she would be known to many for an act of violence her husband committed 55 years ago."^[29]

Old last sentence:

However, Adele Morales was more than "the wife who was stabbed by Norman Mailer". She had also studied art and painting under Hans Hoffman, and was an artist in her own right.

Sherrill Edwards - The proposed sentence to revise to looks great. I believe adding Adele's daughter and her quote provides an impact on the article. It can be added and still remain in a neutral stage. Wik1mar456 (talk) 16:07, 13 April 2025 (UTC)