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Author Norman Mailer dies at 84 | Author Norman Mailer dies at 84 |
(40 minutes later) | |
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Norman Mailer has died of renal failure aged 84, his literary executor has said. | Pulitzer Prize-winning author Norman Mailer has died of renal failure aged 84, his literary executor has said. |
Mailer won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize twice, for The Armies of the Night in 1968 and The Executioner's Song in 1979. | Mailer won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize twice, for The Armies of the Night in 1968 and The Executioner's Song in 1979. |
He was known for biting prose and as an antagonist of the feminist movement. His latest work, The Castle in the Forest, was published this year. | He was known for biting prose and as an antagonist of the feminist movement. His latest work, The Castle in the Forest, was published this year. |
Last month he had surgery to remove scar tissue from around his lung. | Last month he had surgery to remove scar tissue from around his lung. |
Born in 1923 in New Jersey, Mailer wrote dozens of books as well as plays, poems, screenplays and essays. | Born in 1923 in New Jersey, Mailer wrote dozens of books as well as plays, poems, screenplays and essays. |
His strident views on US political life, and the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, provoked and enraged readers. | |
Author feuds | |
Mailer's first major success, the 1948 novel The Naked and the Dead, was a fictionalised account based on his experiences in the Army in World War II. | |
His works were often filled with violence, sexual obsession and views that angered feminists. | |
Detractors considered him an intellectual bully and he feuded with fellow authors including Truman Capote, William Styron, Tom Wolfe and Norman Podhoretz. | |
In later life he reconsidered many of his old positions but never surrendered his right to speak his mind. | |
Mailer was also co-founder of The Village Voice alternative newspaper in New York. |