Norman Mailer
| Norman Mailer | |
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Norman Mailer photographed by Carl Van Vechten in 1948
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| Born | Norman Kingsley Mailer January 31, 1923 Long Branch, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | November 10, 2007 (aged 84) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Pen name | Andreas Wilson |
| Occupation | Novelist, essayist, journalist, columnist, poet, playwright |
| Nationality | American |
| Genre | Fiction, non-fiction |
| Spouses | Beatrice Silverman (1944–1952; divorced; 1 child) Adele Morales (1954–1962; divorced; 2 children) Jeanne Campbell (1962–1963; divorced; 1 child) Beverly Bentley (1963–1980; divorced; 3 children) Carol Stevens (1980–1980; divorced; 1 child) Norris Church Mailer (Barbara Jean Davis) (1980–2007; his death; 1 child) |
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Norman Kingsley Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007) was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film-maker, actor, and political activist. His novel The Naked and the Dead was published in 1948. His best-known work was widely considered to be The Executioner's Song, which was published in 1979, and for which he won one of his two Pulitzer Prizes. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, his book Armies of the Night was awarded the National Book Award.
Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe, Mailer is considered an innovator of creative nonfiction, a genre sometimes called New Journalism, which uses the style and devices of literary fiction in fact-based journalism.
Mailer was also known for his essays, the most renowned of which was "The White Negro." He was a cultural commentator and critic, expressing his views through his novels, journalism, essays and frequent media appearances.
In 1955, Mailer and three others founded The Village Voice, an arts- and politics-oriented weekly newspaper distributed in Greenwich Village.
Mailer was born to a Jewish family in Long Branch, New Jersey. His father, Isaac Barnett Mailer, was an accountant born in South Africa, and his mother, Fanny (née Schneider), ran a housekeeping and nursing agency. Mailer's sister, Barbara, was born in 1927.
Raised in Brooklyn, New York, Mailer graduated from Boys' High School and entered Harvard University in 1939, when he was 16 years old. As an undergraduate, he was a member of the Signet Society. At Harvard, he studied aeronautical engineering, and became interested in writing. He published his first story at the age of 18, winning Story magazine's college contest in 1941.
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