A landmark in the modern literature of war by a still-controversial
literary icon
Includes a selection of letters--nine never before published--that
reveal the real life roots of one of the greatest American debut novels
of the last century
Nearly universally praised upon publication as an achievement inviting
comparison with Tolstoy and Hemingway, Norman Mailer's The Naked and
the Dead is not just a monumental war novel but also a devastating
antiwar novel, exposing the primal nature of power through the interplay
of a platoon of soldiers on an impossible and ultimately pointless
mission on an obscure island in the Pacific during World War II. Written
just after the war ended, in the early days of the emerging Cold War,
the novel daringly engages with the authoritarian impulses in the
American character.
To celebrate and commemorate the centennial of Mailer's birth and the
75th anniversary of the publication of his unforgettable debut novel,
this expanded collector's edition includes a selection of 23 letters
(all but four from Mailer to his first wife, Beatrice) chosen by Mailer
biographer J. Michael Lennon that reveals the keen insight and powerful
ambition of a brilliant young writer grappling with the challenge of
converting the weight of experience into art.