Books↙ | 52 |
---|---|
Novels↙ | 12 |
Stories↙ | 25 |
Collections↙ | 15 |
Interviews↙ | 3 |
Nonfiction narratives↙ | 13 |
References and footnotes |
This Norman Mailer bibliography lists major books[a] by and about Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), an American novelist, new journalist, essayist, public intellectual, filmmaker, and biographer. Over a fifty-nine-year period, Mailer won two Pulitzer Prizes and had eleven books spend a total of 160 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.[1] Mailer's output included fiction, non-fiction, poems and essays. Biographer J. Michael Lennon called Mailer the chronicler of the American Century,[2] and a talent whose career has "been at once so brilliant, varied, controversial, improvisational, public, productive, lengthy and misunderstood".[3]
Title | Abbr.[b] | Year | Type | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
The Naked and the Dead | NAD | 1948 | novel | spent 62 weeks on the bestseller list, achieving no. 1;[4] received a New York Newspaper Guild's "Page One Award"; chosen as one of the four best books of 1948 by Newsweek;[5] original manuscript housed at Yale University[6] |
Barbary Shore | BS | 1951 | novel | spent 3 weeks on the bestseller list, achieving no. 3[4] |
The Deer Park | DP | 1955 | novel | spent 15 weeks on the bestseller list, achieving no. 6[4] |
The White Negro: Superficial Reflections on the Hipster | WN | 1959[c] | essay | first published in Dissent 4, Summer 1957[7] |
Advertisements for Myself | AFM | 1959 | miscellany | original working title: The Hip and the Square: a Miscellany[8] |
Deaths for the Ladies (and Other Disasters) | DFL | 1962 | poetry | |
The Presidential Papers | PP | 1963 | miscellany | |
An American Dream | AAD | 1965 | novel | spent 6 weeks on the bestseller list, achieving no. 8[4] |
Cannibals and Christians | CAC | 1966 | miscellany | |
The Short Fiction of Norman Mailer | SFNM[d] | 1967 | short story collection | nineteen stories — one new ("The Shortest Novel of Them All") and eighteen previously published with an original introduction;[9] published with material from Existential Errands under the title The Essential Mailer, Sevenoaks, Kent: New English Library, 1982 |
The Deer Park: A Play | 1967 | play | ||
Why Are We in Vietnam? | WWVN[e] | 1967 | novel | nominated for the National Book Award[10] |
The Bullfight: A Photographic Narrative with Text by Norman Mailer | 1967 | essay | ||
The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, the Novel as History | AON | 1968 | nonfiction narrative | won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction and the National Book Award for arts and letters;[11] ranked nineteenth on a list of the top 100 works of journalism of the twentieth century[12] |
The Idol and the Octopus: Political Writings on the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations | 1968 | miscellany | selections from PP and CAC, including the new "On Lady Chatterley and Tropic of Cancer"[13] | |
Miami and the Siege of Chicago: An Informal History of the Republican and Democratic Conventions of 1968 | MSC | 1968 | nonfiction narrative | nominated for the National Book Award in history and biography[14] |
Of a Fire on the Moon | OFM | 1971 | nonfiction narrative | nominated for the National Book Award in the sciences category[15] |
King of the Hill: Norman Mailer on the Fight of the Century | 1971 | nonfiction narrative | ||
Prisoner of Sex | POS | 1971 | essay | nominated for the National Book Award in the arts and letters category[16] |
Maidstone: A Mystery | MM | 1971 | screenplay | based on the 1968 film that was mostly improvised[17][18] |
The Long Patrol: 25 Years of Writing from the Work of Norman Mailer | 1971 | collection | edited and introduced by Robert F. Lucid[19] | |
Existential Errands | EE | 1972 | miscellany | |
St. George and the Godfather | SGG | 1972 | nonfiction narrative | |
Marilyn: A Biography; Pictures by the World's Foremost Photographers | MAR | 1973 | biography | spent 9 weeks on the bestseller list, achieving no. 6[4] |
The Faith of Graffiti | FOG | 1974 | essay | |
The Fight | FIG | 1975 | nonfiction narrative | |
Some Honorable Men: Political Conventions, 1960-1972 | SHM | 1976 | anthology | includes a new preface and four previously published political narratives: "Superman Comes to the Supermarket", "In the Red Light", MSC, and SSG[20] |
Genius and Lust: A Journey through the Major Writings of Henry Miller | GAL | 1976 | essay | |
A Transit to Narcissus | TTN | 1978 | novel | facsimile of typescript of previously unpublished novel written in 1943[21] |
The Executioner's Song | ES | 1979 | nonfiction narrative | spent 25 weeks on the bestseller list, achieving no. 3;[4] won the Playboy Writing Award for fiction in 1979 and the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1980;[22] nominated for the American Book Award for fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in 1979;[23] ranked 72 on a list of the top 100 works of journalism of the twentieth century;[12] Mailer insisted on calling ES a "true-life novel"[24] |
Of Women and Their Elegance | OWE | 1980 | novel | photographs by Milton Greene[25] |
The Essential Mailer | EM | 1982 | collection | combines SFNM and EE in a British release[26] |
Pieces and Pontifications | PAP | 1982 | miscellany | Pontifications edited and introduced by J. Michael Lennon[27] |
Ancient Evenings | AE | 1983 | novel | spent 17 weeks on the bestseller list, achieving no. 6[4] |
Tough Guys Don't Dance | TGD | 1984 | novel | spent 10 weeks on the bestseller list, achieving no. 5[4] |
Conversations with Norman Mailer | CNM | 1988 | collection | edited and introduced by J. Michael Lennon; contains 34 previously published interviews, including three self-interviews, an introduction, and chronology of Mailer's life[28] |
Harlot's Ghost | HG | 1991 | novel | spent 4 weeks on the bestseller list, achieving no. 12[4] |
Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery | OT | 1995 | nonfiction narrative | |
Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man: An Interpretive Biography | POP | 1995 | biography | |
The Gospel According to the Son | GAS | 1997 | novel | spent 6 weeks on the bestseller list, achieving no. 7[4] |
The Time of Our Time | TOOT[f] | 1998 | anthology | contains 139 excerpts from 26 of Mailer's books and uncollected periodical pieces; includes "The Shadow of the Crime: A Word from the Author", a one-page reflection on the 1960 stabbing of his second wife Adele;[29] Mailer signed 25,000 copies[29] |
The Spooky Art: Thoughts on Writing | SA | 2003 | miscellany | edited and introduced by J. Michael Lennon; contains previously published and original material[30] |
Modest Gifts: Poems and Drawings | MG | 2003 | poetry | old (some revised) and new poems; reprint of DFL and poems from CAC[31] |
Why Are We at War? | WWW | 2003 | essay | assembled from two interviews and a speech, September 2002 to February 2003, against the Iraq war[32] |
Norman Mailer's Letters on An American Dream, 1963-1969 | LAD | 2004 | letters | 76 letters about the writing and publication of AAD, edited by J. Michael Lennon |
The Big Empty: Dialogues on Politics, Sex, God, Boxing, Morality, Myth, Poker and Bad Conscience in America | BE | 2006 | conversations | with John Buffalo Mailer |
The Castle in the Forest | CIF | 2007 | novel | spent 3 weeks on the bestseller list, achieving no. 5[4] |
On God: An Uncommon Conversation | OG | 2007 | conversations | with J. Michael Lennon; edited transcripts of ten conversations between Lennon and Mailer, 2003–2006[33] |
Mind of an Outlaw: Selected Essays of Norman Mailer | MO | 2013 | collection | 49 important essays, 1948–2006, including "Freud" an unpublished essay from the mid-1950s;[34] edited by Phillip Sipiora |
The Selected Letters of Norman Mailer | SLNM | 2014 | letters | 714 letters, 1940 to 2007, selected from the approximately 50,000 Mailer wrote over his lifetime,[35] edited by J. Michael Lennon |
Norman Mailer: Four Books of the 1960s | 2018 | collection | Library of America #305 contains AAD, WVN, AON, and MSC; edited by J. Michael Lennon | |
Norman Mailer: Collected Essays of the 1960s | 2018 | collection | Library of America #306; edited by J. Michael Lennon | |
Lipton's: A Marijuana Journal | 2024 | journal | A journal written in the winter of 1954–1955, containing an introduction, annotations, an index, and correspondence between Mailer and Robert Lindner; edited by J. Michael Lennon, Gerald R. Lucas, and Susan Mailer |
Title | Year | Publication Information |
---|---|---|
The Naked and the Dead | 1948 | New York: Rinehart, 6 May; London: Wingate, 9 May 1949. |
Barbary Shore | 1951 | New York: Rinehart, 24 May; London: Cape, 21 January 1952. |
The Deer Park | 1955 | New York: Putnam's, 14 October; London: Wingate, 1957. |
An American Dream | 1965 | New York: Dial, 15 March. London: Deutsch, 26 April. |
Why Are We in Vietnam? | 1967 | New York: Putnam's, 15 September; London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, March or April 1969. |
A Transit to Narcissus | 1978 | New York: Howard Fertig, 29 March. |
Of Women and Their Elegance | 1980 | New York: Simon and Schuster, 26 November; London: Hodder and Stoughton. |
Ancient Evenings | 1983 | Boston: Little, Brown, 4 April; London: Macmillan, 26 May. |
Tough Guys Don't Dance | 1984 | New York: Random House, 20 August; London: Michael Joseph, 15 October. |
Harlot's Ghost | 1991 | New York: Random House, 2 October. London: Michael Joseph, October. |
The Gospel According to the Son | 1997 | New York: Random House, 2 May; London: Little, Brown, 18 September. |
The Castle in the Forest | 2007 | New York: Random House, 23 January. |
Title | Year | Publication Information |
---|---|---|
The White Negro | 1959 | San Francisco: City Lights Books. |
The Armies of the Night | 1968 | New York: New American Library. |
Miami and the Siege of Chicago | 1968 | New York: New American Library. |
Of a Fire on the Moon | 1971 | Boston: Little, Brown. |
King of the Hill | 1971 | New York: New American Library. |
Prisoner of Sex | 1971 | Boston: Little, Brown. |
St. George and the Godfather | 1972 | New York: New American Library. |
The Faith of Graffiti | 1974 | New York: Praeger. |
The Fight | 1975 | Boston: Little, Brown. |
Genius and Lust | 1976 | New York: Grove. |
The Executioner's Song | 1979 | Boston: Little, Brown. |
Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery | 1995 | New York: Random House. |
Why Are We at War? | 2003 | New York: Random House. |
Lipton's: A Marijuana Journal | 2024 | New York: Arcade. |
Beginning in 1959, it became a habit of Mailer's to release his periodical writing, excerpts, and the occasional new piece in collections and miscellanies every few years.[36] Not including letters, Mailer had written for over 100 magazines and periodicals, including Dissent, Ladies Home Journal, One: The Homosexual Magazine, Playboy, Esquire, Vanity Fair, Harper's, New Yorker, and others.[37]
Title | Year | Publication Information |
---|---|---|
Advertisements for Myself | 1959 | New York: Putnam, 1959. |
The Presidential Papers | 1963 | New York: Putnam, 1963. |
Cannibals and Christians | 1966 | New York: Dial, 1966. |
The Short Fiction of Norman Mailer | 1967 | New York: Dell, 1967. |
The Idol and the Octopus | 1968 | New York: Dell, 1968. |
The Long Patrol: 25 Years of Writing from the Work of Norman Mailer | 1971 | New York: World, 1971. |
Existential Errands | 1972 | Boston: Little, Brown, 1972. |
Some Honorable Men: Political Conventions, 1960-1972 | 1976 | Boston: Little, Brown, 1976. |
The Essential Mailer | 1982 | Sevenoaks, Kent: New English Library, 1982. |
Pieces and Pontifications | 1982 | Boston: Little, Brown, 1982. |
The Time of Our Time | 1998 | New York: Random House, 1998. |
The Spooky Art: Thoughts on Writing | 2003 | New York: Random House, 2003. |
Mind of an Outlaw: Selected Essays of Norman Mailer | 2013 | New York: Random House: 2013. |
Norman Mailer: Four Books of the 1960s | 2018 | New York: Library of America, 2018. |
Norman Mailer: Collected Essays of the 1960s | 2018 | New York: Library of America, 2018. |
By 1986, Mailer had been interviewed approximately 200 times, perhaps more than any other American author on a wide range of topics.[38] He may maintain that distinction today.[37]
Title | Year | Publication Information | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Pieces and Pontifications | 1982 | Boston: Little, Brown, 1982. | contains 20 interviews |
Conversations with Norman Mailer | 1988 | Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. | Edited by J. Michael Lennon. |
The Big Empty | 2006 | New York: Nation Books. | With John Buffalo Mailer. |
On God: An Uncommon Conversation | 2007 | New York: Random House. | With J. Michael Lennon. |
Title | Written[g] | Published | Original Publication | Collected In | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
"The Greatest Thing in the World" | 1940 | 1941 | Harvard Advocate | Story 19 (1941); Hold Your Breath: Suspense Stories (1947);[h] Story: The Fiction of the Forties (1949); AFM (1959); SFNM (1967)[39] | written during Mailer's sophomore year at Harvard;[40] won Story magazine's eighth annual college writing contest[41] |
"Right Shoe on Left Foot" | 1941[42] | 1942 | Harvard Advocate | - | never reprinted[43] |
"Maybe Next Year" | 1941[42] | 1942 | Harvard Advocate | The Harvard Advocate Anthology (1942); AFM (1959); SFNM (1967)[44] | written in Mailer's junior year at Harvard[45] |
"A Calculus at Heaven" | 1942 (Oct.) | 1944 | Cross-Section: A Collection of New American Writing | AFM (1959); SFNM (1967); EM (1982)[46] | written for Robert Hillyer's English A-5 class in Mailer's senior year at Harvard[46] |
"The Paper House" | 1951–1952 (Winter)[47] | 1952 | New World Writing: Second Mentor Collection | Lilliput's Extra Holiday Reading (London 1953); AFM (1959); SFNM (1967); A Selection from the Short Fiction of Norman Mailer (1968); EM (1982); Stag (1975)[48] | based on an anecdote by Vance Bourjaily, to whom Mailer dedicated the story[49] |
"The Dead Gook" | 1951–1952 (Winter)[47] | 1952 | Discovery, No. 1 | AFM (1959); SFNM (1967); A Selection from the Short Fiction of Norman Mailer (1968); EM (1982)[48] | |
"The Language of Men" | 1951–1952 (Winter)[47] | 1953 | Esquire | Various Temptations (1955); The Armchair Esquire (1958); AFM (1959); SFNM (1967); A Selection from the Short Fiction of Norman Mailer (1968); EM (1982)[50] | |
"Pierrot" | 1951 | 1953 | World Review | AFM (1959); SFNM (1967) | published as "The Patron Saint of MacDougal Alley" in AFM and SFNM with changes[50] |
"The Notebook" | 1951–1952 (Winter)[47] | 1953 | Cornhill Magazine no. 996 | The Berkley Book of Modern Writing, No. 3 (1956); AFM (1959); SFNM (1967); EM (1982)[50] | reprinted in The Mailer Review 12.1 (2018)[51] |
"The Man Who Studied Yoga" | 1951–1952 (Winter)[52] | 1956 | New Short Novels 2 | AFM (1959); SFNM (1967); EM (1982); TOOT (1998)[53] | |
"Advertisements for Myself on the Way Out" | 1958[54] | 1958 | Partisan Review 25 | AFM (1959); SFNM (1967); EM (1982)[55] | |
"The Time of Her Time" | 1958[56] | 1959 | AFM | SFNM (1967); Writer’s Choice: Each of Twenty American Authors Introduces His Own Best Story (1974); EM (1982); TOOT (1998)[55] | |
"It" | 1939 | 1959 | AFM | SFNM (1967) | |
"Great in the Hay" | 1950 | 1959 | AFM | SFNM (1967) | |
"Truth and Being: Nothing and Time" | 1960 (Dec.)[57] | 1962 | Evergreen Review no. 26 | PP (1963); SFNM (1967); Evergreen Review Reader: A Ten Year Anthology, 1962–1967, Vol. II (1980); EM (1982)[58] | |
"The Locust Cry" | 1963 | 1963 | Commentary | PP (1963); CAC (1966); SFNM (1967); EM (1982)[59] | |
"The Last Night: a Story" | 1962 | 1963 | Esquire | CAC (1966); SFNM (1967); EM (1982); The Last Night (1984)[59] | reprinted in The Mailer Review 13.1 (2019) with an introduction by J. Michael Lennon[60] |
"The Killer: a Story" | 1960[61] | 1964 | Evergreen Review no. 32 | CAC (1966); SFNM (1967); EM (1982)[62] | |
"Ministers of Taste: A Story" | 1965 | 1965 | Partisan Review no. 32 | CAC (1966); SFNM (1967); EM (1982)[63] | |
"The Shortest Novel of Them All" | 1963 | 1967 | SFNM | - | the only story in SFNM that was not previously published |
"The Blood of the Blunt" | 1951 | 2012 | The Mailer Review | - | previously unpublished short story, circa 1951[64] |
"Love Buds" | 1942–43 | 2013 | The Mailer Review | - | previously unpublished short story written in Mailer's senior year in college, 1942–43[65] |
"La Petite Bourgeoise" | 1951 | 2014 | The Mailer Review | - | previously unpublished short story, circa 1951[65] |
"The Thalian Adventure" | 1951 | 2015 | The Mailer Review | - | previously unpublished short story, circa 1951[66] |
"The Collision" | 1933 | 2016 | The Mailer Review | - | Mailer's first complete story, previously unpublished, written January 1933[67] |
"Dr. Bulganoff and the Solitary Teste" | 1951 | 2017 | The Mailer Review | - | previously unpublished short story, circa 1951[68] |
Notes
Citations
Works Cited