Norman Mailer

Norman Mailer

Norman Mailer (Born Nachum Malech Mailer in Long Branch, New Jersey 1923 - New York 2007) Jewish-American writer, son of Isaac Barnett 'Barney' Mailer and Fanny (Schneider) Mailer. Liberal and controversial, he won several American literature awards. His first novel was The Naked and the Dead. Other works were Armies of the Night and The Executioner's Song. For these two novels he won two Pulitzer Prizes (1969 and 1980). He also wrote An American Dream, which was rather notorious for his lead character murdering his wife as well as buggering his ex-Nazi maid while being praised for it. In total, he wrote over 40 books.

Mailer with Dan Wolf and Ed Fancher co-founded The Village Voice, one of the most influential weekly newspaper of the far Left in the United States (1954–55).

His fascination with drinking, drugs and violence nearly took a tragic turn in 1960, when he stabbed his wife Adele Morales with a penknife after a nightlong party.^[1]

One of his more infamous actions was his successfully petitioning for the killer Jack Abbott to be released from prison simply on the basis of his being a writer. During his brief time in parole, Abbott then proceeded to murder Richard Adan, a restaurant waiter, over an argument to use the restroom, getting him arrested yet again.

Mailer studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1967 he was arrested at the Pentagon during a demonstration against the Vietnam War. He died in New York City at the age of 84.

See also[edit]

• Günter Grass
• Harvard University

External links[edit]

• Norman Mailer
• Norman Mailer - A Dissenting Vote

References[edit]

1. ↑ Norman Mailer