Advertisements for Myself
| Author | Norman Mailer |
|---|---|
| Country | United States of America |
| Language | English |
| Genre | collection of various genres, autobiography |
| Published | 1959 |
| Publisher | Harvard University Press |
| ISBN |
Advertisements for Myself is an omnibus collection of fiction, essays, verse, and fragments by Norman Mailer, with interstitial autobiographical commentaries that he calls "advertisements." It was released after Mailer secured his place in the literary world in 1948 with the critically acclaimed novel The Naked and the Dead, then endured setbacks with the poorly received Barbary Shore (1951) and The Deer Park (1955). The collection, which was published by G.P. Putnam's Sons in 1959, features stories from Mailer's days as a student at Harvard College as well as later works.
It is a key book among the dozens that Mailer produced and helped to create his persona as a swaggering, anti-establishment writer. It also "served as Mr. Mailer's announcement that he was king of the literary hill."
This section explains the book's two tables of contents. The first lists the contents of the book in chronological order, while the second table of contents categorizes the pieces based on genre, such as fiction, essays, and interviews. Mailer lists what he believes are his best pieces in the book, which are: The Man Who Studied Yoga, "The White Negro", "The Time of Her Time", "Dead Ends", and "Advertisements for Myself on the Way Out".
Mailer gives readers his perspective, at age 36, on his writing, other writers, and the state of the nation. He believes his work, present and future, will be a key influence on those practicing his craft. In pulling together this collection of short novels, short stories, essays and advertisements, he's making his case and showing how he's matured as a writer over the years. Though at times in his career he was influenced by Ernest Hemingway, he points to the author as a writer who didn’t grow. "Hemingway has always been afraid to think, afraid of losing even a little popularity… and his words excite no thought in the best of my rebel generation." It's a generation that he believes has grown up in a world "more in decay than the worst of the Roman Empire." Still, he gives Hemingway credit for knowing the value of his own work and fighting to make his personality enrich his books. A writer's personality, Mailer observes, can determine how much attention readers give his work. "The way to save your work and reach more readers is to advertise yourself."
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