Almanac of Story Tellers: Norman Mailer

  Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of January 31st.

_______________________________________________________________________________

     It is the 31st day of the year, leaving 334 days remaining in 2022. 

   

    On this date in 1923, the American author and activist, Norman Mailer, was born.

    He told stories in both the fictional world and the non-fiction world, sometimes combining the two. His debut novel, The Naked and the Dead, published in 1948, was one of the first about World War II. It was critically acclaimed and popular, making a name for Mailer in the literary world.

    But his personality -- male chauvanisitic, egotistical, and belligerent -- did not help him immediately continue nor sustain that popularity. Over the next 15 or so years, his novels were not exactly popular, and he was briefly considered to be a one-hit wonder. However, he kept writing and editing, and in 1955, helped to found The Village Voice in New York City, which became one of the longest running of the alternative papers of its time.

    It was Mailer's role in New Journalism -- blending the objectivity of traditional journalism with the subjective, creative writing of fiction -- that saw him return to the spotlight and produce his best non-fiction stories. In Armies of the Night, Mailer both observed and participated in one of the biggest demonstrations against the Vietnam War. The resulting book won him a Pulitizer prize and renewed acclaim.

    He continued his foray into New Journalism with reports on the 1968 Republican and Democratic conventions in the book, Miami and the Seige of Chicago. Of a Fire on the Moon was Mailer's reports on the exploration of the moon.

    He continued to write, and in 1979 published a book that combined fiction and non-fiction, The Executioner's Song, which told the life and death of convicted murderer Gary Gilmore in novel form. It won Mailer his second Pulitzer prize.

    Mailer, who was raised and lived most of his life in New York -- and who ran for mayor in 1969 -- died in the city in 2007.