A self-proclaimed philosophical "existentialist" and political "left conservative," Norman Mailer has led a colorful and notorious life. He was born on January 31, 1923 in Long Branch, New Jersey, to Isaac (an accountant) and Fanny (owner of a small business) and moved with his family to Brooklyn at the age of four. When he was sixteen, he began his studies in aeronautical engineering at Harvard University and developed an interest in writing.

In 1944, Mailer was inducted into the United States Army and served in the Philippines. He recounted his experiences there in his first novel, The Naked and the Dead, which gained much critical and popular acclaim. In the introduction to the fiftieth-anniversary edition of the novel. Mailer contends that "it came out at exactly the right time when, near to three years after the Second World War ended, everyone was ready for a big war novel that...