Norman Mailer bibliography

This Norman Mailer bibliography lists major books^[a] by and about Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), an American novelist, new journalist, essayist, public intellectual, filmmaker, and biographer. Over a fifty-nine-year period, Mailer won two Pulitzer Prizes and had eleven books spend a total of 160 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.^[1] Mailer's output included fiction, non-fiction, poems and essays. Biographer J. Michael Lennon called Mailer the chronicler of the American Century,^[2] and a talent whose career has "been at once so brilliant, varied, controversial, improvisational, public, productive, lengthy and misunderstood".^[3]

Norman Mailer
bibliography

Mailer in 2002
Books↙	52
Novels↙	12
Stories↙	25
Collections↙	15
Interviews↙	3
Nonfiction narratives↙	13
References and footnotes

Chronology

Title	Abbr.[b]	Year	Type	Notes
The Naked and the Dead	NAD	1948	novel	spent 62 weeks on the bestseller list, achieving no. 1;[4] received a New York Newspaper Guild's "Page One Award"; chosen as one of the four best books of 1948 by Newsweek;[5] original manuscript housed at Yale University[6]
Barbary Shore	BS	1951	novel	spent 3 weeks on the bestseller list, achieving no. 3[4]
The Deer Park	DP	1955	novel	spent 15 weeks on the bestseller list, achieving no. 6[4]
The White Negro: Superficial Reflections on the Hipster	WN	1959[c]	essay	first published in Dissent 4, Summer 1957[7]
Advertisements for Myself	AFM	1959	miscellany	original working title: The Hip and the Square: a Miscellany[8]
Deaths for the Ladies (and Other Disasters)	DFL	1962	poetry
The Presidential Papers	PP	1963	miscellany
An American Dream	AAD	1965	novel	spent 6 weeks on the bestseller list, achieving no. 8[4]
Cannibals and Christians	CAC	1966	miscellany
The Short Fiction of Norman Mailer	SFNM[d]	1967	short story collection	nineteen stories — one new ("The Shortest Novel of Them All") and eighteen previously published with an original introduction;[9] published with material from Existential Errands under the title The Essential Mailer, Sevenoaks, Kent: New English Library, 1982
The Deer Park: A Play		1967	play
Why Are We in Vietnam?	WWVN[e]	1967	novel	nominated for the National Book Award[10]
The Bullfight: A Photographic Narrative with Text by Norman Mailer		1967	essay
The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel, the Novel as History	AON	1968	nonfiction narrative	won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction and the National Book Award for arts and letters;[11] ranked nineteenth on a list of the top 100 works of journalism of the twentieth century[12]
The Idol and the Octopus: Political Writings on the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations		1968	miscellany	selections from PP and CAC, including the new "On Lady Chatterley and Tropic of Cancer"[13]
Miami and the Siege of Chicago: An Informal History of the Republican and Democratic Conventions of 1968	MSC	1968	nonfiction narrative	nominated for the National Book Award in history and biography[14]
Of a Fire on the Moon	OFM	1971	nonfiction narrative	nominated for the National Book Award in the sciences category[15]
King of the Hill: Norman Mailer on the Fight of the Century		1971	nonfiction narrative
Prisoner of Sex	POS	1971	essay	nominated for the National Book Award in the arts and letters category[16]
Maidstone: A Mystery	MM	1971	screenplay	based on the 1968 film that was mostly improvised[17][18]
The Long Patrol: 25 Years of Writing from the Work of Norman Mailer		1971	collection	edited and introduced by Robert F. Lucid[19]
Existential Errands	EE	1972	miscellany
St. George and the Godfather	SGG	1972	nonfiction narrative
Marilyn: A Biography; Pictures by the World's Foremost Photographers	MAR	1973	biography	spent 9 weeks on the bestseller list, achieving no. 6[4]
The Faith of Graffiti	FOG	1974	essay
The Fight	FIG	1975	nonfiction narrative
Some Honorable Men: Political Conventions, 1960-1972	SHM	1976	anthology	includes a new preface and four previously published political narratives: "Superman Comes to the Supermarket", "In the Red Light", MSC, and SSG[20]
Genius and Lust: A Journey through the Major Writings of Henry Miller	GAL	1976	essay
A Transit to Narcissus	TTN	1978	novel	facsimile of typescript of previously unpublished novel written in 1943[21]
The Executioner's Song	ES	1979	nonfiction narrative	spent 25 weeks on the bestseller list, achieving no. 3;[4] won the Playboy Writing Award for fiction in 1979 and the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1980;[22] nominated for the American Book Award for fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in 1979;[23] ranked 72 on a list of the top 100 works of journalism of the twentieth century;[12] Mailer insisted on calling ES a "true-life novel"[24]
Of Women and Their Elegance	OWE	1980	novel	photographs by Milton Greene[25]
The Essential Mailer	EM	1982	collection	combines SFNM and EE in a British release[26]
Pieces and Pontifications	PAP	1982	miscellany	Pontifications edited and introduced by J. Michael Lennon[27]
Ancient Evenings	AE	1983	novel	spent 17 weeks on the bestseller list, achieving no. 6[4]
Tough Guys Don't Dance	TGD	1984	novel	spent 10 weeks on the bestseller list, achieving no. 5[4]
Conversations with Norman Mailer	CNM	1988	collection	edited and introduced by J. Michael Lennon; contains 34 previously published interviews, including three self-interviews, an introduction, and chronology of Mailer's life[28]
Harlot's Ghost	HG	1991	novel	spent 4 weeks on the bestseller list, achieving no. 12[4]
Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery	OT	1995	nonfiction narrative
Portrait of Picasso as a Young Man: An Interpretive Biography	POP	1995	biography
The Gospel According to the Son	GAS	1997	novel	spent 6 weeks on the bestseller list, achieving no. 7[4]
The Time of Our Time	TOOT[f]	1998	anthology	contains 139 excerpts from 26 of Mailer's books and uncollected periodical pieces; includes "The Shadow of the Crime: A Word from the Author", a one-page reflection on the 1960 stabbing of his second wife Adele;[29] Mailer signed 25,000 copies[29]
The Spooky Art: Thoughts on Writing	SA	2003	miscellany	edited and introduced by J. Michael Lennon; contains previously published and original material[30]
Modest Gifts: Poems and Drawings	MG	2003	poetry	old (some revised) and new poems; reprint of DFL and poems from CAC[31]
Why Are We at War?	WWW	2003	essay	assembled from two interviews and a speech, September 2002 to February 2003, against the Iraq war[32]
Norman Mailer's Letters on An American Dream, 1963-1969	LAD	2004	letters	76 letters about the writing and publication of AAD, edited by J. Michael Lennon
The Big Empty: Dialogues on Politics, Sex, God, Boxing, Morality, Myth, Poker and Bad Conscience in America	BE	2006	conversations	with John Buffalo Mailer
The Castle in the Forest	CIF	2007	novel	spent 3 weeks on the bestseller list, achieving no. 5[4]
On God: An Uncommon Conversation	OG	2007	conversations	with J. Michael Lennon; edited transcripts of ten conversations between Lennon and Mailer, 2003–2006[33]
Mind of an Outlaw: Selected Essays of Norman Mailer	MO	2013	collection	49 important essays, 1948–2006, including "Freud" an unpublished essay from the mid-1950s;[34] edited by Phillip Sipiora
The Selected Letters of Norman Mailer	SLNM	2014	letters	714 letters, 1940 to 2007, selected from the approximately 50,000 Mailer wrote over his lifetime,[35] edited by J. Michael Lennon
Norman Mailer: Four Books of the 1960s		2018	collection	Library of America #305 contains AAD, WVN, AON, and MSC; edited by J. Michael Lennon
Norman Mailer: Collected Essays of the 1960s		2018	collection	Library of America #306; edited by J. Michael Lennon
Lipton's: A Marijuana Journal		2024	journal	A journal written in the winter of 1954–1955, containing an introduction, annotations, an index, and correspondence between Mailer and Robert Lindner; edited by J. Michael Lennon, Gerald R. Lucas, and Susan Mailer

Novels

Title	Year	Publication Information
The Naked and the Dead	1948	New York: Rinehart, 6 May; London: Wingate, 9 May 1949.
Barbary Shore	1951	New York: Rinehart, 24 May; London: Cape, 21 January 1952.
The Deer Park	1955	New York: Putnam's, 14 October; London: Wingate, 1957.
An American Dream	1965	New York: Dial, 15 March. London: Deutsch, 26 April.
Why Are We in Vietnam?	1967	New York: Putnam's, 15 September; London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, March or April 1969.
A Transit to Narcissus	1978	New York: Howard Fertig, 29 March.
Of Women and Their Elegance	1980	New York: Simon and Schuster, 26 November; London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Ancient Evenings	1983	Boston: Little, Brown, 4 April; London: Macmillan, 26 May.
Tough Guys Don't Dance	1984	New York: Random House, 20 August; London: Michael Joseph, 15 October.
Harlot's Ghost	1991	New York: Random House, 2 October. London: Michael Joseph, October.
The Gospel According to the Son	1997	New York: Random House, 2 May; London: Little, Brown, 18 September.
The Castle in the Forest	2007	New York: Random House, 23 January.

Non-fiction

Title	Year	Publication Information
The White Negro	1959	San Francisco: City Lights Books.
The Armies of the Night	1968	New York: New American Library.
Miami and the Siege of Chicago	1968	New York: New American Library.
Of a Fire on the Moon	1971	Boston: Little, Brown.
King of the Hill	1971	New York: New American Library.
Prisoner of Sex	1971	Boston: Little, Brown.
St. George and the Godfather	1972	New York: New American Library.
The Faith of Graffiti	1974	New York: Praeger.
The Fight	1975	Boston: Little, Brown.
Genius and Lust	1976	New York: Grove.
The Executioner's Song	1979	Boston: Little, Brown.
Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery	1995	New York: Random House.
Why Are We at War?	2003	New York: Random House.
Lipton's: A Marijuana Journal	2024	New York: Arcade.

Anthologies, collections and miscellanies

Beginning in 1959, it became a habit of Mailer's to release his periodical writing, excerpts, and the occasional new piece in collections and miscellanies every few years.^[36] Not including letters, Mailer had written for over 100 magazines and periodicals, including Dissent, Ladies Home Journal, One: The Homosexual Magazine, Playboy, Esquire, Vanity Fair, Harper's, New Yorker, and others.^[37]

Title	Year	Publication Information
Advertisements for Myself	1959	New York: Putnam, 1959.
The Presidential Papers	1963	New York: Putnam, 1963.
Cannibals and Christians	1966	New York: Dial, 1966.
The Short Fiction of Norman Mailer	1967	New York: Dell, 1967.
The Idol and the Octopus	1968	New York: Dell, 1968.
The Long Patrol: 25 Years of Writing from the Work of Norman Mailer	1971	New York: World, 1971.
Existential Errands	1972	Boston: Little, Brown, 1972.
Some Honorable Men: Political Conventions, 1960-1972	1976	Boston: Little, Brown, 1976.
The Essential Mailer	1982	Sevenoaks, Kent: New English Library, 1982.
Pieces and Pontifications	1982	Boston: Little, Brown, 1982.
The Time of Our Time	1998	New York: Random House, 1998.
The Spooky Art: Thoughts on Writing	2003	New York: Random House, 2003.
Mind of an Outlaw: Selected Essays of Norman Mailer	2013	New York: Random House: 2013.
Norman Mailer: Four Books of the 1960s	2018	New York: Library of America, 2018.
Norman Mailer: Collected Essays of the 1960s	2018	New York: Library of America, 2018.

Conversations and interviews

By 1986, Mailer had been interviewed approximately 200 times, perhaps more than any other American author on a wide range of topics.^[38] He may maintain that distinction today.^[37]

Title	Year	Publication Information	Notes
Pieces and Pontifications	1982	Boston: Little, Brown, 1982.	contains 20 interviews
Conversations with Norman Mailer	1988	Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.	Edited by J. Michael Lennon.
The Big Empty	2006	New York: Nation Books.	With John Buffalo Mailer.
On God: An Uncommon Conversation	2007	New York: Random House.	With J. Michael Lennon.

Short stories

Main article: The Short Fiction of Norman Mailer

Title	Written[g]	Published	Original Publication	Collected In	Notes
"The Greatest Thing in the World"	1940	1941	Harvard Advocate	Story 19 (1941); Hold Your Breath: Suspense Stories (1947);[h] Story: The Fiction of the Forties (1949); AFM (1959); SFNM (1967)[39]	written during Mailer's sophomore year at Harvard;[40] won Story magazine's eighth annual college writing contest[41]
"Right Shoe on Left Foot"	1941[42]	1942	Harvard Advocate	-	never reprinted[43]
"Maybe Next Year"	1941[42]	1942	Harvard Advocate	The Harvard Advocate Anthology (1942); AFM (1959); SFNM (1967)[44]	written in Mailer's junior year at Harvard[45]
"A Calculus at Heaven"	1942 (Oct.)	1944	Cross-Section: A Collection of New American Writing	AFM (1959); SFNM (1967); EM (1982)[46]	written for Robert Hillyer's English A-5 class in Mailer's senior year at Harvard[46]
"The Paper House"	1951–1952 (Winter)[47]	1952	New World Writing: Second Mentor Collection	Lilliput's Extra Holiday Reading (London 1953); AFM (1959); SFNM (1967); A Selection from the Short Fiction of Norman Mailer (1968); EM (1982); Stag (1975)[48]	based on an anecdote by Vance Bourjaily, to whom Mailer dedicated the story[49]
"The Dead Gook"	1951–1952 (Winter)[47]	1952	Discovery, No. 1	AFM (1959); SFNM (1967); A Selection from the Short Fiction of Norman Mailer (1968); EM (1982)[48]
"The Language of Men"	1951–1952 (Winter)[47]	1953	Esquire	Various Temptations (1955); The Armchair Esquire (1958); AFM (1959); SFNM (1967); A Selection from the Short Fiction of Norman Mailer (1968); EM (1982)[50]
"Pierrot"	1951	1953	World Review	AFM (1959); SFNM (1967)	published as "The Patron Saint of MacDougal Alley" in AFM and SFNM with changes[50]
"The Notebook"	1951–1952 (Winter)[47]	1953	Cornhill Magazine no. 996	The Berkley Book of Modern Writing, No. 3 (1956); AFM (1959); SFNM (1967); EM (1982)[50]	reprinted in The Mailer Review 12.1 (2018)[51]
"The Man Who Studied Yoga"	1951–1952 (Winter)[52]	1956	New Short Novels 2	AFM (1959); SFNM (1967); EM (1982); TOOT (1998)[53]
"Advertisements for Myself on the Way Out"	1958[54]	1958	Partisan Review 25	AFM (1959); SFNM (1967); EM (1982)[55]
"The Time of Her Time"	1958[56]	1959	AFM	SFNM (1967); Writer’s Choice: Each of Twenty American Authors Introduces His Own Best Story (1974); EM (1982); TOOT (1998)[55]
"It"	1939	1959	AFM	SFNM (1967)
"Great in the Hay"	1950	1959	AFM	SFNM (1967)
"Truth and Being: Nothing and Time"	1960 (Dec.)[57]	1962	Evergreen Review no. 26	PP (1963); SFNM (1967); Evergreen Review Reader: A Ten Year Anthology, 1962–1967, Vol. II (1980); EM (1982)[58]
"The Locust Cry"	1963	1963	Commentary	PP (1963); CAC (1966); SFNM (1967); EM (1982)[59]
"The Last Night: a Story"	1962	1963	Esquire	CAC (1966); SFNM (1967); EM (1982); The Last Night (1984)[59]	reprinted in The Mailer Review 13.1 (2019) with an introduction by J. Michael Lennon[60]
"The Killer: a Story"	1960[61]	1964	Evergreen Review no. 32	CAC (1966); SFNM (1967); EM (1982)[62]
"Ministers of Taste: A Story"	1965	1965	Partisan Review no. 32	CAC (1966); SFNM (1967); EM (1982)[63]
"The Shortest Novel of Them All"	1963	1967	SFNM	-	the only story in SFNM that was not previously published
"The Blood of the Blunt"	1951	2012	The Mailer Review	-	previously unpublished short story, circa 1951[64]
"Love Buds"	1942–43	2013	The Mailer Review	-	previously unpublished short story written in Mailer's senior year in college, 1942–43[65]
"La Petite Bourgeoise"	1951	2014	The Mailer Review	-	previously unpublished short story, circa 1951[65]
"The Thalian Adventure"	1951	2015	The Mailer Review	-	previously unpublished short story, circa 1951[66]
"The Collision"	1933	2016	The Mailer Review	-	Mailer's first complete story, previously unpublished, written January 1933[67]
"Dr. Bulganoff and the Solitary Teste"	1951	2017	The Mailer Review	-	previously unpublished short story, circa 1951[68]

Critical studies of Mailer's work

• Leeds, Barry H. (1969). The Structured Vision of Norman Mailer. New York: NYU Press. OCLC 474531468.
• Kaufmann, Donald (1969). Norman Mailer: The Countdown (The First Twenty Years). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 9780809303878. OCLC 977535620.
• Lucid, Robert F., ed. (1971). Norman Mailer: The Man and His Work. Boston: Little Brown. OCLC 902036360.
• Braudy, Leo, ed. (1972). Norman Mailer: a Collection of Critical Essays. Twentieth Century Views. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. ISBN 9780135455333. OCLC 868765103.
• Poirier, Richard (1972). Norman Mailer. Modern Masters. New York: Viking Press. OCLC 473033417.
• Solotaroff, Robert (1973). Down Mailer's Way. Urbana; London: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252003981. OCLC 644343516.
• Adams, Laura, ed. (1974a). Will the Real Norman Mailer Please Stand Up. Port Washington; London: Kennikat Press. ISBN 9780804690669. OCLC 1050855202.
• Adams (1974).
• Radford, Jean (1975). Norman Mailer: A Critical Study. London; Basingstoke: Macmillan Press. OCLC 463529477.
• Adams, Laura (1977). Existential Battles: the Growth of Norman Mailer. Athens: Ohio UP. OCLC 787841439.
• Bufithis, Philip (1978). Norman Mailer. New York: Frederick Ungar. OCLC 932270728.
• Merrill, Robert (1978). Norman Mailer. New York: Twayne. OCLC 463500243.
• Gordon, Andrew (1980). An American Dreamer: A Psychoanalytic Study of the Fiction of Norman Mailer. London: Fairleigh Dickinson UP. OCLC 1046256795.
• Begiebing, Robert J. (1980). Acts of Regeneration: Allegory and Archetype in the Works of Norman Mailer. Columbia; London: University of Missouri Press. OCLC 466533555.
• Mills, Hilary (1982). Mailer: A Biography. New York: Empire Books. OCLC 966034621.
• Manso, Peter (1985). Mailer: His Life and Times. New York: Washington Square Press. ISBN 9781416562863. OCLC 1035697738.
• Lennon (1986).
• Bloom, Harold, ed. (1986). Norman Mailer. Modern Critical Views. Philadelphia, PA: Chelsea House. ISBN 9780877546566. OCLC 12420979.
• Lennon (1988).
• Begiebing, Robert J. (1989). Toward a New Synthesis: John Fowles, John Gardner, and Norman Mailer. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI. ISBN 9780835719476. OCLC 924803474.
• Nigel, Leigh (1989). Radical Fictions and the Novels of Norman Mailer. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan. OCLC 68171016.
• Rollyson (1991).
• Merrill, Robert (1992). Norman Mailer Revisited. Boston: Twayne. OCLC 463568236.
• Glenday, Michael K. (1995). Norman Mailer. New York: St. Martins Press. OCLC 878025365.
• Dearborn (1999).
• Dickstein, Morris (2002). Leopards in the Temple: The Transformation of American Fiction, 1945-1970. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard UP. OCLC 606732230.
• Leeds, Barry H. (2002). The Enduring Vision of Norman Mailer. Bainbridge Island, Wash.: Pleasure Boat Studio. OCLC 845519995.
• Bloom, Harold, ed. (2003). Norman Mailer. Bloom's Modern Critical Views. Philadelphia, PA: Chelsea House. OCLC 263706819.
• Lennon (2013).
• Lennon, J. Michael, ed. (2014). The Selected Letters of Norman Mailer. New York: Random House. OCLC 933749753.
• Wenke, Joseph (2014) [1987]. Mailer's America. Hanover, NH; London: University Press of New England for University of Connecticut. ISBN 978-0874513936.
• Bailey, Jennifer (2014) [1979]. Norman Mailer Quick-Change Artist. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. OCLC 935186576.
• Schultz, Kevin (2016). Buckley and Mailer: the Difficult Friendship that Shaped the Sixties. New York: W.W. Norton. OCLC 921868954.
• Bozung, Justin, ed. (2017). The Cinema of Norman Mailer: Film is Like Death. New York: Bloomsbury Academic. OCLC 1011515088.
• McKinley, Maggie (2017). Understanding Norman Mailer. Columbia, SC: The University of South Carolina Press. OCLC 985080064.
• Lennon & Lennon (2018).
• McKinley, Maggie, ed. (2021). Norman Mailer in Context. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108774413.
• Begiebing, Robert J. (2023). Norman Mailer at 100: Conversations, Correlations, Confrontations. Baton Rogue, LA: Louisiana State University Press.