Norman Kingsley Mailer was born on January 31, 1923 in Long Branch, New Jersey. Growing up in Brooklyn. In 1939, he entered Harvard University, began writing while studying and published his first story at the age of 18. In 1943, Norman Mailer graduated from Harvard with an aviation engineer degree. Conscripted in 1944, he fought in the Philippines and served in the Twelfth Armored Cavalry Regiment. In 1946, Mailer was demobilized, a few years later he entered the Sorbonne, but before that he managed
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Norman Kingsley Mailer was born on January 31, 1923 in Long Branch, New Jersey. Growing up in Brooklyn. In 1939, he entered Harvard University, began writing while studying and published his first story at the age of 18. In 1943, Norman Mailer graduated from Harvard with an aviation engineer degree. Conscripted in 1944, he fought in the Philippines and served in the Twelfth Armored Cavalry Regiment. In 1946, Mailer was demobilized, a few years later he entered the Sorbonne, but before that he managed to write the novel Naked and the Dead. The book, published in 1948, was a commercial success and received critical acclaim, and many called it the best American novel about the Second World War.
During his long, eventful life as a writer and journalist, Norman Mailer wrote several books, published many articles, worked in cinema as a screenwriter, director, producer, starred in several films (in particular, Milos Forman in Ragtime and Jean-Luc Godard in King Lear).
Among his most notable books are the novels “Deer Park” (1955), “American Dream” (1965), “Why We Are in Vietnam” (1967), an essay “White Negro”, a collection of “entertainment for himself”. In the 1960s, the writer actively opposed the war in Vietnam and in 1967, for participating in an anti-war demonstration, even landed in prison. Widely known are Mailer’s documentary reports “Army of the Night” about the Pulitzer Prize-winning peace march on Washington, “Miami and the Siege of Chicago” about the national conventions of the Republican and Democratic parties, “Fire on the Moon.” In the novel “The Song of the Executioner”, based on real events, the writer explored the problem of violence in society. His latest novel is entitled The Gospel According to the Son.
In addition to literature and journalism, Norman Mailer left a noticeable mark in the cinema. In the late 1960s, inspired by Warhol and Cassavetes, he entered independent cinema. In 1968, Mailer directed two provocative films, Wild 90 and Outlaw. Then, in 1970, he created a highly caustic satire on the presidential campaigns, Maidstone, in which he and Rip Thorne starred. In 1982, Mailer wrote the script for the television film “The Executioner’s Song”, and in 1987 he acted as the director and screenwriter of the film “Tough Guys Don’t Dance”, shot on his own detective novel.
Norman Mailer has been married six times and has nine children.
Died November 10, 2007