Stuff I recommend that you read

• James Wolcott, "Norman Mailer Sent Me," Vanity Fair; 1970s New York, rubbing shoulders in corduroy blazers, young people in the big city 
• Heather Horn, "Dickens In Love," The Atlantic; Pip, Nancy, Fagin
• Megan Abbott, "Twilight of the Boosters," L.A. Review of Books; THE LEFTOVERS, BABBITT, "It's A Wonderful Life"
• Adam Gopnik, "Broken Kingdom," The New Yorker; Dictionopolis, Sea of Knowledge, Conclusions
• Zach Baron, "Fear and Self-Loathing in Las Vegas," The Daily;"I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon."

Bad romance

The Daily Beast rounds up eight great "literary love affairs," including the Shelley-Byron-Shelley love triangle, but I think we can do better. The only thing worth noting of Norman Mailer and his 18th 6th wife is that someone still married him after he tried to kill one of his other wives. But then, I'm sure that's what they said about Henry VIII. Hemingway wrote a play about his and Martha Gellhorn's relationship called "The Fifth Column" that is probably his most moving work, and (thus?) naturally very hard to see staged.

Who wants to live in Norman Mailer's house?

British GQ is holding a writing contest for UK undergrad and grad students over 18 and the winter gets to live at his former Provincetown home, now a writers' colony, next July. (Lovely time to be on the Cape.) Mailer loved Provincetown and had lived there full-time for a decade before his death in 2007. Judges for the contest include novelists Geoff Dyer and Tony Parsons, Jamie Byng of the Scottish publisher Canongate and singer Lily Allen.

If you aren't eligible you can still apply for a fellowship at the writers' colony, which includes free lodging and tuition "and a bicycle for local transport." Had I but talent and temperament...