Mailer added this skylight and gangway, replete with nautical details, including a vintage door (Right) and a porthole that is just outside the frame in this listing photo.
Photo: Douglas Elliman

Norman Mailer liked to have a view when he sat down to write. And so he ended up living on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade in a 25-foot-wide townhouse, whose lower floors he gradually sold while saving the upper one—with the best view—for himself. His fourth-floor apartment, with no elevator, became a two-bedroom apartment with the feel of a duplex thanks to a unique addition: a sort of crow’s nest, crowned by a skylight and flanked by corridors that allowed views over the living area. A separate room on the ground floor served as his writing studio when he was in town; he finished his work The Hangman’s Song, probably his masterpiece. Even when he was over 80, although his hips and knees were damaged, Mailer still completed the three flights with walking sticks.

The design was part of Mailer’s macho cult – an idea he came up with to overcome one of his (many) mistakes. As his son Michael Mailer told the New York Just When the apartment first came on the market in 2011, Norman Mailer suffered from a fear of heights and tried to combat it through a kind of design as exposure therapy. But the decor was also fun for his nine children: Michael remembered hanging a trapeze, a rope ladder and a hammock in which Hunter S. Thompson was once found after a night of partying.

Since then, the apartment has been updated and painted a glossy white, and the kitchen has been opened up and stripped of a dark bar top. (The family kept it for a while after his sixth and final wife, Norris Church Mailer, died, and finally sold it in 2018 for $2 million—a price that included the writing studio, which the owner doesn’t rent out.) But there’s still plenty of character: stained-glass windows in the living area and nautical touches that Captain Mailer brought in, including a metal door (which swings uselessly off the upper floor), a porthole overlooking a terrace overlooking the East River, and a slight curve in the living room ceiling—paneled with teak slats that recall the planking of a ship’s hull.

It’s hard to tell in this listing photo, but the living room ceiling has a slight curve, like a ship’s hull. The bookshelves are original Mailer ones.
Photo: Douglas Elliman

The apartment’s broker, David Son, had previously listed the apartment for rent in 2022 for $8,500 a month – a price that sparked what he called an “insane bidding war.” This time, Son and the owner decided to raise the asking rent to $13,000 – reflecting both increased interest in Downtown Brooklyn and higher prices for apartments with character. He expects to find a taker quickly. “Everyone who’s been in here is blown away,” he said.

For $13,000 a month (as per listing) you get this view of the East River. This is actually the smallest of the apartment’s three terraces.
Photo: Douglas Elliman