Norman Mailer

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Norman Kingsley Mailer (born January 31, 1923) is an American novelist, journalist, playwright, screenwriter and film director. Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion and Tom Wolfe, Mailer is considered an innovator of creative nonfiction, a genre sometimes called New Journalism, but which covers the essay to the nonfiction novel. He has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize twice and the National Book Award once. In 2005, he won the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from TheNational Book Foundation.

Contents 1 Biography 2 References to Mailer in popular culture 3 References 4 Quotes 5 Select Bibliography 5.1 Fiction 5.2 Non-Fiction 6 External links

[edit] Biography

Mailer was born to a Jewish family in Long Branch, New Jersey. He was brought up in Brooklyn, New York, graduated from Boys' High School and attended Harvard University in 1939, where he studied aeronautical engineering. He is a former member of the Harvard Advocate. At the university, he became interested in writing and published his first story when he was 18. Mailer was drafted into the Army in World War II and served in the South Pacific. In 1948, just before enrolling in the Sorbonne in Paris, he wrote a book that made him world-famous: The Naked and the Dead, based on his personal experiences during World War II. It was hailed by many as one of the best American novels to come out of the war years and named one of the "100 best novels" by the Modern Library.

In the following years, Mailer continued to work in the field of the novel. Barbary Shore (1951) was a surreal parable of Cold War left politics, set in a Brooklyn rooming-house. His 1955 novel The Deer Park drew on his experiences working as a screenwriter in Hollywood in the early 1950s. It was initially rejected by numerous publishers owing to its sexual content. But in the mid-1950s, he became increasingly known for his counter-cultural essays. He was one of the founders of The Village Voice in 1955 [1]. In the book Advertisements for Myself (1959), including the essay The White Negro: Superficial Reflections on the Hipster (1957), Mailer examined violence, hysteria, crime and confusion in American society, in both fictional and reportage forms.

Other famous works include: The Presidential Papers (1963), An American Dream (1965), Why Are We in Vietnam? (1967), Armies of the Night (1968, awarded a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award), Miami and the Siege of Chicago (1968), Of a Fire on the Moon (1970), The Prisoner of Sex (1971), Marilyn (1973), The Fight (1975), The Executioner's Song (1979, awarded a Pulitzer Prize), Ancient Evenings (1983), Harlot's Ghost (1991), Oswald's Tale (1995), and The Castle in the Forest (2007).

In 1968 he received a George Polk Award for his reporting in Harper's Magazine.

In addition to his experimental fiction and nonfiction novels, Mailer has produced a play version of The Deer Park, and in the late 1960s directed a number of improvisational avant-garde films in a Warhol style, including Maidstone (1970), which includes a brutal brawl between himself and Rip Torn that may or may not have been planned. In 1987, he directed a film version of his novel Tough Guys Don't Dance, starring Ryan O'Neal, which has become a minor camp classic.

A number of Mailer's nonfiction works, such as The Armies of the Night and The Presidential Papers, are political. He covered the Republican and Democratic National Conventions in 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1992, and 1996. In 1967, he was arrested for his involvement in anti-Vietnam demonstrations. Two years later, he ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic Party primary for Mayor of New York City, allied with columnist Jimmy Breslin (who ran for City Council President), proposing New York City secession and creating a 51st state.

In 1980, Mailer spearheaded convicted killer Jack Abbott's successful bid for parole. He helped Abbott publish a collection of letters to Mailer about his experiences in prison. Abbott committed a murder within weeks of his release, and consequently, Mailer was subject to criticism for his role; in a 1992 interview, in the Buffalo News, he conceded that his involvement was "another episode in my life in which I can find nothing to cheer about or nothing to take pride in."

His biographical subjects have included Pablo Picasso and Lee Harvey Oswald. His 1986 off-Broadway play Strawhead starring his daughter, Kate, was about Marilyn Monroe. His 1973 biography of Monroe was particularly controversial: in its final chapter he stated that she was murdered by agents of the FBI and CIA who resented her supposed affair with Robert F. Kennedy. He later admitted that these speculations were "not good journalism."

Mailer has been married six times, and has nine children by his various wives. In 1960, Mailer stabbed his second wife, Adele Morales, with a penknife at a party. While Morales made a full physical recovery, in 1997 she published a memoir of their marriage entitled The Last Party, which outlined her perception of the incident. This incident has been a focal point for feminist critics of Mailer, who point to themes of sexual violence in his work. Another of his wives was the British heiress and journalist Lady Jeanne Campbell, a daughter of the 11th Duke of Argyll and a granddaughter of Lord Beaverbrook; by her, he had a daughter Kate Mailer, an actress.

In 2005 he co-authored a book with his youngest child, John Buffalo Mailer, titled The Big Empty. In 2007 Random House published his latest novel, The Castle in the Forest. In a cover review, The New York Times Book Review called it "Remarkable...Tolstoyan."

He currently lives in Provincetown, MA.

[edit] References to Mailer in popular culture

• Since May 2005, he has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.

• In 2005, Mailer made a special guest star appearance, playing himself on the WB television show Gilmore Girls. In the episode titled "Norman Mailer, I'm Pregnant," the author is interviewed at the Dragonfly Inn, an establishment owned by the main character, Lorelai Gilmore. Also guest-starring was Mailer's son, actor Stephen Mailer, as the interviewer. Moreover, in a 2004 episode of Gilmore Girls titled "Girls in Bikinis, Boys Doin' The Twist," the character Paris Geller makes reference to Gary Gilmore, subject of The Executioner's Song. No theory has yet been advanced which would satisfactorily link Norman Mailer's appearance on the show, the reference to Gary Gilmore, and the title of the series.

• Mailer appears in the documentaries When We Were Kings, The World According to Bush, Inside Deep Throat and Hijacking Catastrophe. He also appears as Harry Houdini in Cremaster 2 (1999), one episode in Matthew Barney's five-part The Cremaster Cycle which also draws on the portrait of Gary Gilmore in The Executioner's Song.

• In the Robert Altman film Short Cuts, a character relates the story of how Norman Mailer stabbed his wife in the breast.

• Referenced by Charles Bukowski in one of his poems from the collection Sometimes You Get So Alone It Just Seems Right.

• In an episode of the cartoon Bullwinkle, the students at Wassamatta U. turn down Bullwinkle's offer for old-fashioned college fun because "We're going to the student union to protest Norman Mailer."

• In an episode of Family Guy (PTV), the character Quagmire references him: "Welcome to Midnight Q. Tonight we're gonna enjoy the smooth jazz of Charles Mingus. Norman Mailer is here to read an excerpt from his latest book. And we also have a girl from Omaha who's hiding a banana. We'll find out where. Giggity giggity, giggity goo. Stick around."

• He is also mentioned in Woody Allen's satirical futuristic film Sleeper (1973), in which Allen says to a scientist, "This is a picture of Norman Mailer. He left his ego to the Harvard Medical School!"

• Mailer was referenced in The Simpson's episode "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala-D'oh-cious":

Bart: Pop quiz, hotshot. I'm supposed to be doing my homework, but you find me upstairs reading a Playdude. What do you do? What DO you do?
Shary: I make you read every article in that magazine, including Norman Mailer's latest clap-trap about his waning libido.
Homer: Ooh. She is tough.

• In The Simpson's Episode "Itchy and Scratchy: The Movie," Bart cannot attend the movie and instead is seen at school reading a novelization by Norman Mailer.

• Mailer is mentioned in an episode of King of the Hill. In the episode, (The Son that Got Away, Season two), Bobby finds a Playboy magazine and Connie says that she "hopes there's an article by Norman Mailer."

• The British band The Fall have a song called "Fortress/Deer Park" on their 1982 album Hex Enduction Hour, which is named after the Mailer novel.

• In the William Finn musical A New Brain, the protagonist's mother throws out her dying son's book collection in the song "Throw it Out." Mother: "Book by Norman Mailer? Throw it out! Egotistic Jew!"

• Indie rock/synth pop band The Faint was originally known as "Norman Bailer", and included Bright Eyes frontman Conor Oberst.

• In the 2007 movie Factory Girl, Andy Warhol (Guy Pearce) relates a story about how Norman Mailer punched a friend in the stomach at a party. Warhol then muses, "All I could think was 'Will Norman Mailer ever punch me?'"

He is mentioned in the songs:

• "Give Peace a Chance" by John Lennon.

• "A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd Into Submission)[2]" by Simon & Garfunkel.

• "Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken" by Lloyd Cole.

• "Santa Monica" by Savage Garden.

• "Get By" by Talib Kweli: "I paint a picture with the pen like Norman Mailer".

• "Animal Bar" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. "Never 21 when everyone's a sailor/Coming up strong at the animal bar/Ever loving mug of Mr. Norman Mailer."

• In an unlisted track on the album De Rigueurmortis (2002) by Australian art-pop band TISM he is mentioned alongside Dylan Thomas and Jackson Pollock , "Genius is different," . He is also mentioned in Give Up For Australia on Machiavelli and the Four Seasons (1995).

• In the GWAR song "Vlad the Impaler": Vlad, Vlad, Vlad the impaler | Vlad, Vlad, He could have been a sailor but he's | Vlad, Vlad, Vlad the impaler | Vlad, Vlad, He could have been a | Whaler could have been a Tailor, | He turned out to be Norman Mailer.

• The Warren Zevon song "The French Inhaler" ends with the lines: The French Inhaler / He stamped and mailed her / "So long, Norman" / She said, "So long, Norman". Some people have interpreted the song as being about Marilyn Monroe, though this is unconfirmed. The final line may just be a play on words to make reference to Mailer, not actually saying that the song is about him.

• In the song "Faster" by the Manic Street Preachers - "I am, stronger than Mensa/Miller and Mailer, I spat out Plath and Pinter"

• In the song "Somewhere In Holywood" by 10cc - "Norman Mailer waits to nail her/He's under the bed/And he's waiting for her to be dead."

[edit] References

• Mailer: His Life and Times edited by Peter Manso, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985. Highly readable "oral" biography of Mailer created by cross-cutting interviews with friends, enemies, acquaintances, relatives, wives of Mailer and Mailer himself.
• Charters, Ann (ed.). The Portable Beat Reader. Penguin Books. New York. 1992. ISBN 0-670-83885-3 (hc); ISBN 0-14-015102-8 (pbk)

[edit] Quotes

• "I take it for granted that there's a side of me that loves public action, and there's another side of me that really wants to be alone and work and write. And I've learned to alternate the two as matters develop."
• "I knew that there was one thing I wanted to be and that was a writer."
• "There are two kinds of brave men: those who are brave by the grace of nature, and those who are brave by an act of will."

[edit] Select Bibliography

[edit] Fiction

• The Naked and the Dead. New York: Rinehart, 1948.
• Barbary Shore. New York: Rinehart, 1951.
• The Deer Park. New York: Putnam's, 1955.
• An American Dream. New York: Dial, 1965.
• The Short Fiction of Norman Mailer. New York: Dell, 1967.
• Why are we in Vietnam? New York: Putnam's, 1967.
• Of Women and Their Elegance. New York, Simon and Schuster, 1980
• Ancient Evenings. Boston: Little, Brown, 1983.
• Tough Guys Don't Dance. New York: Random House, 1984.
• Harlot's Ghost. New York: Random House, 1991.
• The Gospel According To The Son. New York: Random House, 1997.
• The Castle in the Forest. New York: Random House, 2007.

[edit] Non-Fiction

• The White Negro. San Francisco: City Lights, 1957.
• Advertisements for Myself. New York: Putnam's, 1959.
• The Presidential Papers.New York: Putnam, 1963.
• Cannibals and Christians. New York: Dial, 1966.
• Armies of the Night. New York: New American Library, 1968.
• Miami and the Siege of Chicago. New York: New American Library, 1968.
• Of a Fire on the Moon. Boston: Little, Brown, 1969.
• The Prisoner of Sex. Boston: Little, Brown, 1971.
• Marilyn. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1973.
• The Faith of Grafitti. New York: Praeger, 1974.
• The Fight. Boston: Little, Brown, 1975.
• The Executioner's Song. Boston: Little, Brown, 1979.
• Oswald's Tale:An American Mystery. New York: Random House, 1996.
• Why Are We At War?. New York: Random House, 2003.

[edit] External links

• The Norman Mailer Society
• Norman Mailer on American Masters (PBS Broadcast)
• Norman and John Buffalo Mailer - "The Big Empty" recorded on 03/02/06 at The New York Society for Ethical Culture, 84 min., mp3 format
• John Buffalo Mailer and Norman Mailer live on WNYC's Leonard Lopate show on 03/02/06, in mp3 format
• Mailer's interview with The Paris Review
• 1991 audio interview of Norman Mailer by Don Swaim of CBS Radio, 56 min., RealAudio
• Norman Mailer's writing on the Huffington Post
• Joyce Carol Oates on Norman Mailer
• Apostrophe, 19th december 1980 : one-hour interview on French television about his books
• Interview with Amy Goodman