Norman Mailer
1923-2007
The Scarboro Hotel
1882-1941
Corner of Ocean Avenue and South Bath Avenue
The big news of the 1882 summer season in Long Branch was the construction of a grand hotel, the Scarboro, at the corner of Ocean Ave. and S. Bath Ave. The ornate Queen Anne-style hotel contained 200 rooms within its 4 stories and attic. In 1916 the Scarboro was acquired and remodeled by Louis and Rebecca "Beck" Shapiro, the hotel served a largely Jewish clientele.
On September 12th, 1941, the Scarboro was destroyed by fire. It was the last of Long Branch's grand hotels. Beck Shapiro's father, Hyman Schneider, came to Long Branch in 1892 and opened a kosher grocery, he was a founder of Congregation Brothers of Israel. Beck's sister, Fan, married Isaac B. "Barney" Mailer. Their first child, Norman Kingsley Mailer, was
delivered by Dr. Slocum in Long Branch on January 31, 1923. Norman started writing at the Scarboro hotel. He entered Harvard at 16 and continued to summer in Long Branch, where he wrote numerous stories. His first novel, The Naked and
the Dead, was published in 1948. The Armies of the Night in 1969 and The Executioner's Song in 1980 won Pulitzer prizes. Mailer had a long career as a novelist, journalist, biographer, filmmaker, politician, and activist.
"There
was that law of life, so cruel and so just, that one must grow or else pay more for remaining the same."
The Deer Park, 1955
Sponsored by the Norman Mailer Society 8/31/17
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