Norman Mailer Summary

Mailer, Norman (1923—) With the publication of his brilliant first novel The Naked and the Dead (1948), Norman Mailer established himself as the next important writer of his age; and indeed, ov... Read more

Biography EssayNorman Mailer's achievement lies primarily in his treatment of the conflict between man's search for self-actualization and the strictures society places upon him. Mailer has rendered t... Read more

Since the publication of his first novel, The Naked and the Dead, catapulted Norman Mailer to sudden fame in the late 1940s, he has been alternately praised and criticized due to his outspoken opinion... Read more

In various newspaper columns, essays, interviews, and novels from the mid-1950s to the late 1960s, Norman Mailer has brooded over the psychological and cultural implications of what he has termed the ... Read more

After almost fifty years as a literary celebrity and a prolific writer of both fiction and nonfiction, Norman Mailer still defies critics and scholars to define his niche as a writer. Some interpreter... Read more

[This entry was updated by J. Michael Lennon (Wilkes University) from his update in the Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography, volume 6, pp. 162-183, of the entries by Philip H. Bufithis (... Read more

Critical Essay by F. W. Dupee Advertisements for Myself is chaotic; its tone is uncertainly pitched between defiance and apology. So much is this the case that anyone can easily lay hands on its jugul... Read more

Critical Essay by George Alfred Schrader Soren Kierkegaard has … provided us with an exquisitely precise description of the kind of program which Mailer has adopted for himself. Mailer calls it... Read more

Critical Essay by Joan Didion It is one of those testimonies to the tenacity of self-regard in the literary life that large numbers of people remain persuaded that Norman Mailer is no better than thei... Read more

Critical Essay by Christopher Lehmann-haupt [There] can be little doubt that in some important respects "Ancient Evenings" is a triumph of technique over what for many writers would have... Read more

Critical Essay by Paul Gray [Ancient Evenings] is hands down the most surprising work Mailer has ever offered. It really is set entirely in an alien long ago, just as the author had been promising dur... Read more

Critical Essay by Anthony Burgess We learn, in [the 709 large pages of "Ancient Evenings"], a great number of things. Most of all we learn how much Egyptology Mailer has learned in the p... Read more

In the following essay, Toback provides a survey of Mailer's writings and personal politics upon the publication of Why Are We in Vietnam? In the late 50's, Norman Mailer's reputa... Read more

In the following review, Kermode offers a favorable assessment of The Gospel According to the Son, which he concludes is "a book of considerable intellectual force." To read the survivin... Read more

In the following essay, Fishman discusses Mailer's three-fold persona as public celebrity, social critic, and American writer in relation to his experiments with the New Journalism genre. As Fi... Read more

In the following essay, Bloom considers Mailer's unconventional literary production and problematic critical reputation as a remarkable author who "has written no indisputable book.�... Read more