Norman Mailer Dead at Age 84

Norman Mailer Dead at Age 84
By RICHARD PYLE – 4 hours ago

NEW YORK (AP) — Norman Mailer, the macho prince of American letters who for decades reigned as the country's literary conscience and provocateur with such books as "The Naked and the Dead" and "The Executioner's Song" died Saturday, his literary executor said. He was 84.

Mailer died of acute renal failure at Mount Sinai Hospital, said J. Michael Lennon, who is also the author's biographer.

From his classic debut novel to such masterworks of literary journalism as "The Armies of the Night," the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner always got credit for insight, passion and originality.

Some of his works were highly praised, some panned, but none was pronounced the Great American Novel that seemed to be his life quest from the time he soared to the top as a brash 25-year-old "enfant terrible."

Mailer built and nurtured an image over the years as pugnacious, street-wise and high-living. He drank, fought, smoked pot, married six times and stabbed his second wife, almost fatally, during a drunken party.

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He loved boxing, and that's the area where I was most familiar with him. He told a story about seeing Ali in the late '80s, and Ali was very friendly with him. When Mailer went to use the restroom, Ali asked his wife, "You still with that old man?" Mailer loved Ali's sense of humor, and thought that was the funniest story. He understood and fully appreciated how Muhammad liked to unsettle opponents before a fight.