For Mr. Mailer, the proudly pugilistic giant of American literature, being scared of heights was unacceptable. Heck, he lived in Brooklyn Heights.
So when he decided to remodel his top-floor walk-up apartment more than four decades ago, he set himself a challenge by designing a space that resembled a jungle gym at sea.
The roof was raised and modeled after a crow’s nest on a ship, with a series of slender ladders leading up two flights, with landings and small rooms, resembling tiny galleys, on each level.
“He had a vertigo problem,” said his son Michael, in an interview at the apartment, which is now on the market. “So this was designed partially to conquer that fear.”
In his father’s raucous younger years there was a hammock strung up between the rafters, a trapeze swing dangling from the ceiling and a rope ladder, providing a more adventurous way to scale the apartment.
“As a kid, it was amazing,” said Mr. Mailer, 47, who lived in the apartment until he was 5 and then returned when he was 12 for several years. He recalled a party in the late 1970s with Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Hunter S. Thompson all in the apartment and come morning, Mr. Thompson still there, passed out on the hammock.
His father died in 2007. After the death last year of the author’s sixth and last wife, Norris Church, Michael Mailer, who runs a movie production company, moved into the apartment. He said the proceeds from the sale would be split among all the siblings.
“I would have loved to have rented it from the family forever,” he said. “But with nine kids, selling is the fairest way of dealing with this asset.”
Dolores Grant, a broker at the Corcoran Group who is helping the family with the sale, also lives in the building and said that because it was such an unconventional space, it did not lend itself to easy comparisons.
They have set the asking price at $2.5 million.
Real Estate Highlights
In this week’s section: The vast, underrecognized, short-term rental market; living in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.
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The unit, in a 25-foot-wide brownstone at 142 Columbia Heights, certainly defies easy description in a real estate listing.
The two bedrooms in the main apartment are modest in size, but each can easily fit a queen bed. While there is only a single small bathroom in the apartment, the kitchen has been updated and is open and inviting.
The apartment is little changed from when his father was alive, Mr. Mailer said, aside from being “slightly feminized.”
Scattered across the large living/dining room, are reminders of the rich — and sometimes turbulent — events that marked his father’s life. A button recalls his bid for mayor of New York with the slogan: “I would sleep better if Norman Mailer were Mayor.” A photo shows the author in a boxing ring. A poster commemorates his 1962 debate with William F. Buckley.
The apartment will be shown furnished; Mr. Mailer said that if a buyer was interested in any of the furniture or other artifacts, the family would be open to discussion about selling them.
In keeping with the nautical theme, the ceiling in the living room is made of teak and bowed like a ship’s hull.
The Mailer apartment, with its oversize picture window and terrace, has a truly commanding view of Manhattan across the East River. “My dad always liked writing with a view,” Mr. Mailer said.
There is also outdoor space on the roof, which is accessible through the crow’s nest.
Additionally, there is another room one floor down, which is not accessible from the main apartment, that could be used as a guest room. It has its own bathroom, but given its small size, joining the apartments would not be practical.
Michael Mailer said his father had used the room for a time as a writing studio, completing his Pulitzer Prize-winning “Executioner’s Song” there in 1979.
