Synopses & Reviews
THE DEFINITIVE, AUTHORIZED ORAL BIOGRAPHY OF THE AMERICAN ICON
The winner of every major national literary award, the preeminent novelist of his generation, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, a movie director, politician, pugilist, antiwar activist, hipster, philosopher, and enfant terrible, Norman Mailer has been maligned, loved, hated, belittled, idolized -- but never ignored. This sweeping biography captures the legend's extraordinary life and career in his own fascinating words and in vivid accounts by his famous peers, friends, enemies, wives, lovers, and family members. Mailer is an extraordinary tapestry, a portrait of an era as well as a man -- as protean as the subject himself and just as overflowing with life.
Review
"A rare and unprecedented document." -- Los Angeles Times Book Review
Review
"Manso's exhaustive, kiss-and-tell biography seems fitting for a man of such caprice and profligacy, his work defined by excess and brilliance at once." -- The Boston Globe
Review
"A rare and unprecedented document."-- Los Angeles Times Book Review
Review
"Try dipping into Mr. Manso's interviews without at once becoming addicted....You can't." -- The New York Times
Review
"Frank, detailed, outspoken, funny, horrifying, fascinating, ludicrous, awesome, irreverent, brave, hypnotic, petty, dramatic, adroit, and unseemly -- a whirlwig of ambition, passion, and disaster....It will make you forget your troubles." -- The Village Voice
Review
"The book is grand gossip, a sort of portable Hamptons, Everyman's own private literary soirée." -- Time
Review
"A rare and unprecedented document." -- andlt;iandgt;Los Angeles Times Book Reviewandlt;/iandgt;
Synopsis
For more than 50 years, Norman Mailer was at the forefront of American letters and popular culture. In this work, originally published to acclaim 20 years ago, Manso reveals the man behind the legend like never before--or since. Photos throughout.
Synopsis
THE DEFINITIVE, AUTHORIZED ORAL BIOGRAPHY OF THE AMERICAN ICON The winner of every major national literary award, the preeminent novelist of his generation, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, a movie director, politician, pugilist, antiwar activist, hipster, philosopher, and enfant terrible, Norman Mailer has been maligned, loved, hated, belittled, idolized -- but never ignored. This sweeping biography captures the legend's extraordinary life and career in his own fascinating words and in vivid accounts by his famous peers, friends, enemies, wives, lovers, and family members. Mailer is an extraordinary tapestry, a portrait of an era as well as a man -- as protean as the subject himself and just as overflowing with life.
About the Author
Peter Manso is the author of the definitive biography of Marlon Brando, as well as Ptown: Art, Sex, and Money on the Outer Cape, which was a #1 Boston Globe bestseller. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Vanity Fair, Premiere, and Paris Match.
Table of Contents
I. Brooklyn (1923-39)
II. Harvard (1939-43)
III. The Army, Paris,
The Naked and the Dead (1944-48)
IV. Hollywood, Politics, and
Barbary Shore (1948-51)
V. Greenwich Village and
The Deer Park (1951-55)
VI.
The Village Voice (1955-56)
VII. The Hip and the Square,
Advertisements for Myself, and "The Trouble" (1956-60)
VIII.
Deaths for the Ladies,
Presidential Papers, and
An American Dream (1961-65)
IX. The Age of Aquarius (1965-69)
X.
The Prisoner of Sex and
Marilyn (1970-75)
XI.
The Executioner's Song (1975-79)
XII.
Ancient Evenings and Onward (1980-84)
Contributors
Mailer Family Tree
Afterword: Alas, Poor Norman (1985-2007)
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index