The right to write

Abstract

Mailer talks of his involvement with the group of writers who spoke out against the Ayatollah Khomeni's death threats to Salmon Rushdie and against Walden Books, who pulled Rushdie's book, Satanic Verses, from their shelves. He recounts the meeting between the writers and a group of Black Muslims to come to some understanding of their opposing positions. He tries to convey a sense of what Khomeni's threat symbolized to Western writers.