Norman Mailer
Personal Information
Personal Information
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Norman Mailer was born in 1923 in Long
Branch, N.J. Mailer grew up in Brooklyn
and began attending Harvard University
in 1939. It was while at university
that he became interested in writing,
and he published his first story when
he was 18. Drafted into the army in
1944, he served in the Philippines.
Just before enrolling in the Sorbonne,
in Paris, he wrote The Naked and the
Dead (1948). Based on his personal
experiences in World War II, it was
both a critical and commercial success
and hailed by many as one of the finest
American novels to come out of WWII.
Other highlights in a long and
distinguished career include: The White
Negro, a sociological and semi-
autobiographical essay. Advertisements
for Myself, a collection of the best of
Mailer's essays, stories, interviews
and journalism from the 40's and 50's.
Why Are We in Vietnam is a soul-
searching novel on the place of
violence in the Vietnam Years. Mailer's
dramatic journalistic style can be best
appreciated in the superb Armies of the
Night, (Pulitzer Prize and National
Book Award recipient), a recollection
of his own experiences at the
Washington peace rallies of 1968. He
documented the 1968 Republican and
Democratic Conventions in Miami and the
Siege of Chicago and the first manned
landing on the moon in Of a Fire on the
Moon. Mailer returned to examine
violence in society in The
Executioner’s Song a novel based on the
true-life story of convicted murder
Gary Gilmore. Other works include:
Harlot’s Ghost, Oswald’s Tale and The
Gospel According to the Son. A major
figure in post-war American literature,
Mailer's other credits include writing,
directing and appearing in a number of
motion pictures. Norman Mailer won the
National Book Award for Arts and
Letters in 1969 and the Pulitzer Prize
twice, once in 1969 and again in 1980.
In 1955 Mailer co-founded the Village
Voice, and he was editor of Dissent
from 1952 until 1963. For his role in
demonstrations against the war in
Vietnam he was jailed in 1967. He was
President of PEN (US Chapter) from 1984
to 1986.
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| Playwrights' Sidewalk: |
Norman Mailer has a star on the Playwrights' Sidewalk. |
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