Norman Mailer

Norman Mailer is an American novelist, essayist, biographer, and non-fiction writer. He is equally known for his literary contributions and his cantankerous, larger-than-life personality.

In April 2008, Mailer's longtime mistress Carole Mallory sold an unpublished memoir about sex with Mailer to Harvard University.

1. With the pride of an artist, you must blow against the walls of every power that exists, the small trumpet of your defiance.
2. The difference between writing a book and being on television is the difference between conceiving a child and having a baby made in a test tube.
3. Culture is worth a little risk.
4. Booze, pot, too much sex, failure in one's private life, too much attrition, too much recognition, too little recognition. Nearly everything in the scheme of things works to dull a first-rate talent. But the worst probably is cowardice.

• 1923: Born in Long Branch, New Jersey

• 1927: Family Moves to Brooklyn

• 1939: Admitted into Harvard at age 16

• 1941: Published his first story

• 1944: Joined the Army and served in the Philippines

• 1948: The Naked and the Dead Published

• 1954: Co-founded The Village Voice

• 1960: Stabbed wife Adele Morales with a pen-knife

• 1962: Married Lady Jeanne Campbell, had daughter Kate Mailer

• 1963: Married Beverly Bentley

• 1964: Son Michael Mailer born

• 1966: Son Stephen Mailer born

• 1968: Won Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for The Armies of the Night

• 1969: Ran for New York City Mayor and lost

• 1980: Lobbied for convicted killer Jack Abbot's Parole

• 1992: Conceded that his involvement with Abbot was a mistake

• 2007: Died on November 10th