Mailer took part in the October 1967 march on the Pentagon, but initially had no intention of writing a book about it. After conversations with his friend, Willie Morris, editor of "Harper's" magazine, he agreed to produce a long essay describing the march. In a concentrated effort, he produced a 90,000-word piece in two months, and it appeared in "Harper'"s March issue. It was the longest nonfiction piece to be published by an American magazine. As one commentator states, "Mailer disarmed the literary world with "Armies". The combination of detached, ironic self-presentation described himself in the third person, deft portraiture of literary figures (especially Robert Lowell, Dwight Macdonald, and Paul Goodman), a reported flawless account of the March itself, and a passionate argument addressed to a divided nation, resulted in a sui generis narrative praised by even some of his most inveterate revilers." Alfred Kazin, writing in the "New York Times Book Review", said, "Mailer's intuition is that the times demand a new form. He has found it." He later expanded the article to a book, "The Armies of the Night" (1968), awarded a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize.