Comprehensive information and links about Norman Mailer

Norman Mailer (born January 31, 1923Norman Mailer is an American writer and, along with Truman Capote, is considered an innovator of Creative nonfiction.

Norman Mailer was born to a Jewish family in Long Branch, New Jersey. He was brought up in Brooklyn, New York, and began attending Harvard University in 1939, where he studied aeronautical engineering. 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: 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 worked as a writer in Hollywood. Much of his work was refused by many publishers. But in the mid-1950s, he became famous as an anti-establishment essayist, and he was one of the founders of (1959), Mailer examined violence, hysteria, crime, and confusion in American society.

Other famous works include: , are of a political nature. He established a reputation for political reportage, covering the Republican and Democratic National Conventions in 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1992, and 1996. In 1967, he was arrested, briefly, for his involvement in anti-Vietnam demonstrations. Two years later, he ran unsuccessfully as an independent for Mayor of New York City, allied with columnist Jimmy Breslin (who ran for City Council President), with the agenda of New York City secession and creating a 51st state.

In 1980, Norman Mailer supported convicted killer Jack Abbott's bid for parole, which was successful. He helped Abbott publish a book titled , a collection of his letters to Mailer about his experiences in prison. However, Abbott committed a murder not long after his release and was returned to prison. Mailer was subjected to some criticism for his role in getting Jack Abbott released and in a 1992 interview in the , Mailer said that his involvement with Abbott was "another episode in my life in which I can find nothing to cheer about or nothing to take pride in."

Mailer is also noted as a biographer. His subjects have included Marilyn Monroe, Pablo Picasso, and Lee Harvey Oswald.

Norman Mailer has been married six times, including, since 1980 to Norris Church, and has nine children. In 1960, Mailer stabbed his second wife Adele Morales with a penknife at a party. She was not seriously injured.

Mailer appears in the documentary films about "the Rumble in the Jungle" Heavyweight boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, and in the documentary 11 and the Iraq War. 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, and "Get By" by Talib Kweli. The Welsh punk band The Manic Street Preachers mention him alongside Sylvia Plath, Henry Miller, and Harold Pinter in their song "Faster" from on their 1994 album and the Australian art-pop band TISM mention him alongside Dylan Thomas and Jackson Pollack in their song "Genius is different". He is also mentioned in Woody Allen's satirical futuristic film (1973) in which Allen says to a scientist, "This is a picture of Norman Mailer. He left his ego to the Harvard Medical School!"

In 2005, Mailer had a special guest star appearance, playing himself on the WB television show . The episode, titled "Norman Mailer, I'm Pregnant", has the author being interviewed at the Dragonfly Inn, an establishment owned by the main character, Lorelai Gilmore. Also guest starring was Mailer's son, actor Stephen Mailer, who played the interviewer.

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

He currently lives in Provincetown, MA.