Norman Mailer

American novelist, journalist, poet, playwright, filmmaker, philosopher, lover and pugilist, considered a prodigious talent of the 20th century. Mailer won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature for "Armies of the Night" in 1969 and "The Executioners Song" in 1979. In the 50s and 60s, Mailer commanded respect from his publishers, literary critics and readers all over the world. By the 70s, he aroused much anger and controversy for baiting feminists, gays and people of color in public forums and in print. In the 80s and 90s, he had fallen out of fashion in the literary community. Mailer was raised in a lower-middle class Jewish home. His father, Isaac Barnett Mailer, was an accountant who emigrated from South Africa to America via Great Britain. During the Great Depression, his father wandered around New York City looking for employment with his spats, walking cane and charming British accent. His mother, Fanny (Schneider) Mailer, supported the family by working as a secretary in a small fuel-oil business. Growing up in the household was rough for Norman and his sister Barbara. The family moved to Brooklyn when Norman was four. His parents fought hard in their stormy relationship. At an early age, Mailer became the apple of his parents eyes. His mother and family expected great things from him. Feeling the pressure, Mailer excelled at P.S. 161 and Boys High School. Mailer loved airplanes and dreamed of becoming an aeronautical engineer. In 1939, at the age of 16, Mailer entered Harvard University. He began his studies as an engineering major but the lure of writing became too strong. He started writing scores of short stories during his freshman year in college. Graduating from Harvard with an engineering degree, Mailer was inducted into the U.S. Army in 1943 during WWII. He went to the Pacific and served as an infantryman in the Philippines until the end of the war. Mailer participated in the U.S. occupation of Japan. In May 1946, he was discharged from the U.S. Army and resettled in New York City. In fifteen months, he finished his book "The Naked and The Dead," published in 1948. The book was an immediate and critical success and Mailer began his fruitful writing career. Mailers political philosophy grew closer to socialism and communism in the late 1940s. He became a member of the Progressive Party but later wrote "Barbary Shore," 1951, to air his disillusionment with Communism. In 1951, he moved to Greenwich Village in New York City and helped found the newspaper, "The Village Voice." In 1953, Mailer began writing a column for the paper. "The Deer Park" was published in 1955 with little critical or commercial success. In the 1960s, Mailer wrote a monthly column for Esquire magazine. In need of money, he wrote a monthly serial in Esquire magazine called "An American Dream." He wrote of the political climate in the late 60s with "Why are We in Vietnam," 1967 and "Miami and the Siege of Chicago" in 1968. His major acclaim occurred with the publication of "Armies of the Night" about his four-day anti-war protest in Washington D.C. He won the Pulitzer for non-fiction, Polk and National Book Award. In June 1968, he ran an unsuccessful Democratic mayoral primary election campaign in New York City. In 1973, he wrote "Marilyn." His portrait of Gary Gilmore in "The Executioners Song" earned him more critical acclaim and readers in 1979. Mailer went into films, acting in "Beyond the Law," 1968 and directing "T Read less