The Errant Æsthete

Pulitzer prized author, journalist, founder of the Village Voice, filmmaker and tireless button pusher Norman Mailer passed away this Saturday. [See EA's post 11/11] Although he’s renowned for his countless award winning works, he’s also recognized for his lesser known essays that served as the text for the groundbreaking book, The Faith of Graffiti. It was an oversized masterpiece with photos by Mervyn Kurlansky and Jon Naar detailing the mysterious emerging art form on NYC’s subway trains. The notoriously tough guy author intellectualized the graffiti movement in its early beginnings—’Faith’ was published in 1974—when hand styles were still being developed and most of the letters were very primitive. Mailer was fascinated by the art form, writing, “What a quintessential marriage of cool and style to write your name in giant separate living letters, large as animals, lythe as snakes, mysterious as Arabic and Chinese curls of alphabet.” In honor of the pugilistic legman and the groundbreaking book on graff, Complex.com assembled some excerpts and images.

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