ADVERTISEMENTS FOR MYSELF

New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1959. First Edition. Cloth and boards. Near Fine/Near Fine. Thick 8vo, black quarter cloth with author's name in gold and title in red on spine with signature of Norman Mailer in gold on the cover, Mylar-protected photographic dust jacket (unclipped) with cover photo of the author by Judy Scheftel, 532 pages. Norman Mailer (1923 - 2007) was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film-maker, actor, and political activist. His novel The Naked and the Dead was published in 1948 and brought him renown. Mailer's famous essay "The White Negro" (1957) fleshes out the Hipster figure who stands in opposition of forces that seek debilitating conformity in American society. It is one of the most anthologized, and controversial, essays of the postwar period. Mailer republished it in 1959 in his miscellany ADVERTISEMENTS FOR MYSELF which he described as "The first work I wrote with a style I could call my own." The reviews were positive, and most commentators referred to it as his breakthrough work. His best-known work is often considered to be The Executioner's Song (1979) winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Mailer's Armies of the Night won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction and the National Book Award. He was a cultural commentator and critic, expressing his often pugnatious and controversial views through his novels, journalism, essays, and frequent media appearances. NEAR FINE COPY: internally solid, clean, tight; the dust jacket has faded along its spine, and there are small nicks to portions of its extremities.