Norman Mailer - RIP

[pab]

Posted: 11/10/07 at 8:16am

"NEW YORK (AP) -- Norman Mailer, the macho prince of American letters who for decades reigned as the country's literary conscience and provocateur, died of renal failure early Saturday, his literary executor said. He was 84.

Mailer died at Mount Sinai Hospital, said J. Michael Lennon, who is also the author's official biographer.

From his classic debut novel, "The Naked and the Dead," to such masterworks of literary journalism as "The Armies of the Night," the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner always got credit for insight, passion and originality.

Some of Mailer's works were highly praised, some panned, but none was pronounced the Great American Novel that seemed to be his life quest from the time he soared to the top as a brash 25-year-old "enfant terrible."

Mailer built and nurtured an image over the years as pugnacious, streetwise and high-living. He drank, fought, smoked pot, married six times and stabbed his second wife, almost fatally, during a drunken party.

He had nine children, made a quixotic bid to become mayor of New York, produced five forgettable films, dabbled in journalism, flew gliders, challenged professional boxers, was banned from a Manhattan YWHA for reciting obscene poetry, feuded publicly with writer Gore Vidal and crusaded against the women's liberation movement."
Macho prince of letters, Norman Mailer dies at 84

[chris d]

Posted: 11/10/07 at 10:00am

this is a huge, huge loss. "The Spooky Art" is one of the few books on writing that I've read all the way through. It was indispensable for me.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/10/07 at 10:21am

He was a giant.

[tazber]

Posted: 11/10/07 at 12:06pm

OMG! What a great loss this is.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/10/07 at 6:47pm

Mailer was indeed a great writer

I will remember him for championing the cause of Jack Henry Abbott. He pushed to get a murderer out of jail & after he got out he murdered again. Mailers apologies rang hollow.

After that, I had no use for Mailer

Updated On: 11/10/07 at 06:47 PM

[wexy]

Posted: 11/10/07 at 7:01pm

One day I was having lunch outdoors at the Heights Cafe in Brooklyn and I looked up and Norman Mailer was sitting at the table opposite me having his lunch.
I just nodded at him and he nodded back at me.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 11/12/07 at 1:31pm

Wow...I had no idea he died. A great writer who--arguably--never wrote a great book.