“Hoffman is a patriot who has fought the Good Fight to waken his fellow Americans to the corruption of their own traditional ideals. Like Tom Paine, he is a classic example of philosophic and poetic dramatist of public Ideals”
Originally published October 11, 1973
“He may, like Zapata, be that ultimate contradiction — a man 'of the people' who towers above them, a man in constant tension with his own myth.”
Originally published June 14, 1973
“Apart from Robert Rauschenberg, trim as a biscuit in a light tan velvet suit, no prominent artists were present for the much touted Scull sale at the Parke-Bernet galleries last week”
Originally published October 25, 1973
“Suddenly moviegoers of both sexes have encountered ... Marlon Brando’s pseudo-sensitive stud’s swagger, Burt Reynolds’s coy centerfold swagger, and Norman Mailer’s ballsy literary swagger.”
Originally published February 22, 1973
“Proceeds from the birthday part were said to be destined for 'the Fifth Estate,' an organization, or foundation, or publication, or something, anyway, about which no one seemed to know much.”
Originally published February 8, 1973
“Mailer said he wanted to establish something he called 'the Fifth Estate,' essentially an organization to investigate whether the United States was slipping into totalitarianism through a series of carefully manipulated conspiracies. He said it was the best political idea he ever had”
Originally published July 12, 1973
“The great library of New York dope has been going up in smoke this month. I want it all smoked up by September One, when I clear out for good. Here,” he said, tossing me a Baggie full of grass. “Try some 1967”
Originally published September 27, 1973
"Who could have imagined that the Senate Watergate inquest would have ranged as far as the fabled Treasure of the Aztecs?"
Originally published July 19, 1973
“Rather like an aging samurai or a 19th-century empire builder who has lived past his time, Robert Moses remains proud of his monuments and cannot accept the modern challenge to his build-at-any-price ethic.”
Originally published May 17, 1973
“There is no more talk of a few rotten apples in the barrel. It is the barrel that is rotten. The only trouble is that we are all still inside it, and the Knapp Commission has not told us how to get out.”
January 25, 2020