Saturday, November 10, 2007

Norman Mailer dies

Via NYTimes.com
Photo: Christina Pabst

Norman Mailer, the combative, controversial and often outspoken novelist who loomed over American letters longer and larger than any writer of his generation, died today in Manhattan. He was 84. He died of acute renal failure at Mount Sinai Hospital early this morning, his family said.

Photo: Harry Ransom Center

After the publication of The Naked and the Dead, Mailer, then a 25-year-old literary novice, was suddenly famous and at the dawn of a prolific career in which he would loom as one of the major U.S. writers of the twentieth century. He would also continue to be measured by others as well as by himself against his 1948 success.

In 1969 Mr. Mailer ran a second time for mayor of New York City. He was a secessionist advocating that New York City become the 51 state.

Gay Talese, left, with E. L. Doctorow and Norman Mailer at a gathering in support of Salman Rushdie held by the PEN writers' group on February 22, 1989. (Photo: Getty Images)

In 1984 Mr. Mailer was elected president of PEN American Center and was the main force in bringing together writers from all over the world for a much publicized literary conference called “The Writer's Imagination and the Imagination of the State.”

Mr. Mailer's last novel was The Castle on the Forest.

theteach

5 comments:

World So Wide said...

I like this great short feature on Mailer you posted!

maryt/theteach said...

Thanks Leonard, I appreciate your stopping by!

Peter @ Enviroman said...

Hi the teach,

Sorry to hear about your problems with BlogCollector and HTTrack. I have responded to your second comment in How to backup your blog.

Peter a.k.a. enviroman
Enviroman Says
(floods in England, polar ice and ice caps at moutain peaks melting, I think more severe and frequent hurricanes in US, rain when it is supposed to be a dry season in my country, someone from Queensland recently contacted me if I noticed the weather changing. I replied when I was young I had to sleep under the blanket, but now I sleep topless. If I remembered, he said it is freezing in tropical Queensland and now he has to sleep under a blanket. Please folks, take good care of our one and only Spaceship Earth which have no lifeboat. It may not affect us severely now, but it has every chance of severely affecting our future generations. Then they will have lots to be "thankful to us)

BBC said...

For reading material may I suggest "Einstein on Peace" or Einstein-His Life and Universe" by Walter Isaacson.

maryt/theteach said...

Sounds like good reading material, bbc. But I'm sure you wouldn't recommend to me reading material that hopes America fails and contends that it deserves it! :)