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The Naked and the Dead | Author Biography

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.

Norman Mailer

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 gave some idea of what it had all been like." After The Naked and the Dead, Mailer earned more praise for his nonfiction. In 1959 he achieved national attention for Advertisements for Myself, a collection of essays and writings that chronicled his career and personal life, and in 1980 for The Executioner's Song, an account of the life and subsequent execution of notorious murderer Gary Gilmore.

Mailer earned several awards for his literary achievements. They include the National Book Award for nonfiction for Miami and the Siege of Chicago (1968); National Book Award for nonfiction, Pulitzer Prize in letters general nonfiction, and George Polk Award in 1969 for Armies of the Night. He also won the Pulitzer Prize for The Executioner's Song; an Emmy nomination for best adaptation of the for screenplay for the movie version of The Executioner's Song; and the Emerson-Thoreau Medal for lifetime literary achievement from American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1989. Mailer has also produced, directed, and acted in films. He has been a candidate for democratic nomination in two mayoral races in New York City in 1960 and 1969 and was the co-founding editor of Village Voice in 1955.

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1. The Naked and the Dead: Introduction
2. The Naked and the Dead: Summary
3. The Naked and the Dead: Norman Mailer Biography
4. The Naked and the Dead: Characters
5. The Naked and the Dead: Themes
6. The Naked and the Dead: Historical Context
7. The Naked and the Dead: Critical Overview
8. The Naked and the Dead: Essays and Criticism
   1. The Narrative Structure of The Naked and the Dead
   2. A Small Trumpet of Defiance: Politics and the Buried Life in Norman Mailer's Early Fiction
   3. The Malign Deity of The Naked and the Dead
   4. The Naked, the Dead, and the Machine: A New Look at Norman Mailer's First Novel
   5. The Radical Novel in the United States
9. The Naked and the Dead: Compare and Contrast
10. The Naked and the Dead: Topics for Further Study
11. The Naked and the Dead: Media Adaptations
12. The Naked and the Dead: What Do I Read Next?
13. The Naked and the Dead: Bibliography and Further Reading
14. The Naked and the Dead: Pictures
15. Copyright

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