Norman Mailer’s Brooklyn brownstone — where several of author’s exes lived at the same time — hits the market

Brooklyn Heights townhouse is asking $2.4M

142 Columbia Heights and Norman Mailer (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
142 Columbia Heights and Norman Mailer (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

For $2.4 million, you could live in the former Brooklyn townhouse of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Norman Mailer. Just like several of his ex-wives did. At the same time.

The top of Mailer’s Brooklyn Heights townhouse at 142 Columbia Heights, where he wrote novels including “The Executioner’s Song” and “Ancient Evenings,” has hit the market, according to the Wall Street Journal. Mailer used to own the entire building, but he turned it into a co-op in the 1970s and sold off the lower floors before 2007, when he died.

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The portion of the building for sale includes a two-bedroom apartment on the fourth floor and a one-bedroom apartment on the third floor, which span about 1,600 square feet combined. Mailer had designed the top floor to resemble a ship while he was alive.

Mailer fathered a total of nine children with six different women, and his son Michael Mailer told the Journal that several of the author’s ex-wives lived in the brownstone simultaneously. He has been living in the home for about four years and previously tried to sell it in 2011, but the deal fell apart after the buyers realized its atrium was not up to code.

“I love this place, but it will always be my dad’s place,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed the vibrations of living there, but it’s time to move on.” [WSJ] – Eddie Small

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