Norman Mailer
2023 is Norman Mailer’s Centennial Year. Born January 31, 1923, in Long Branch, New Jersy, Mailer packed much eventful and tempestuous living before dying November 10, 2007, age 84. Raised in Brooklyn, Mailer was precociously bright, entering Harvard at 16 and graduating at 20. He published his first short story when he was 18. He was drafted into the US Army in 1944, despite being married (the first of many) and despite trying to get a deferral by arguing that he had a great literary work underway. It turned out that his combat experience in the Pacific was, in his words, “the worst experience of my life, and also the most important.” This scuffle with destiny is characteristic of Mailer: he exasperates with his talent, his obnoxiousness, and by often being right in his egotistic self-assessment.
His novel of combat, The Naked and the Dead (1948) remains one of the most significant novels of WWII. He was, fortunately and overwhelmingly, incapable of resting on his laurels. He published over a dozen novels, short stories, many books of essays, cultural commentaries, political journalism, plays and screenplays, poetry, and opinions in all formats and forums. He collected awards right and left: two Pulitzer Prizes for fiction, a National Book Award for fiction, and a lifetime achievement National Book Award, among many others. He sought, enjoyed, and suffered a high profile in American letters. He engaged with almost all writers of 20th Century literature - friendships, rivalries, feuds, generosities, always talking and writing and getting involved, He extended influences that he felt, and he in turn shaped decades (to the present) of writers in almost all fields of endeavor.
The Spooky Art: Thoughts on Writing
The Spooky Art: Thoughts on Writing
“Writing is spooky,” according to Norman Mailer. “There is no routine of an office to keep you going, only the blank page each morning, and you never know where your words are coming from, those divine words.” In The Spooky Art, Mailer discusses with signature candor the rewards and trials of the writing life, and recommends the tools to navigate it. Addressing the reader in a conversational tone, he draws on the best of more than fifty years of his own criticism, advice, and detailed observations about the writer’s craft.
Praise for The Spooky Art
“The Spooky Art shows Mailer’s brave willingness to take on demanding forms and daunting issues. . . . He has been a thoughtful and stylish witness to the best and worst of the American century.”—The Boston Globe
“At his best—as artists should be judged—Mailer is indispensable, an American treasure. There is enough of his best in this book for it to be welcomed with gratitude.”—The Washington Post
“[The Spooky Art] should nourish and inform—as well as entertain—almost any serious reader of the novel.”—Baltimore Sun
“The richest book ever written about the writer’s subconscious.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Striking . . . entrancingly frank.”—Entertainment Weekly