Were you surprised to see how light the coverage in this week's Village Voice was regarding Norman Mailer? Mailer co-founded the alternative weekly in 1955 with Ed Fancher and Dan Wolf. His innovative and freewheeling marijuana-fueled essays in 1955 and 1956 are regarded as significant in the development of the New Journalism. The salmon-colored weekly's John Koblin spoke with VV editor Tony Ortega about the lack of Mailer:

"Mailer definitely founded this newspaper, but he had a short relationship with it,' Mr. Ortega told The Observer this afternoon ... 'We're gonna do Mailer next week ... There was no shortage of Mailer pieces this week."

(image via albany.edu)