[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/norman_mailer_photo.jpeg]]
%%[[caption-width-right:320:some caption text]]
->''"Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing."''

Norman Kingsley Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007) was a two-time UsefulNotes/PulitzerPrize-winning American author.

He once knocked over Creator/GoreVidal with a headbutt. Vidal had just compared him to UsefulNotes/CharlesManson at the time. Of course, Vidal being [[DeadpanSnarker Vidal,]] Gore would remark about the exchange: "Words fail Norman Mailer yet again."

His most famous work included ''The Naked and the Dead,'' ''The Executioner's Song'' and ''Armies of the Night.''
----
!! Works by Norman Mailer that have their own page on TV Tropes:

* ''Literature/TheCastleInTheForest''
* ''Literature/TheExecutionersSong''
* ''Literature/TheNakedAndTheDead''
* ''Film/ToughGuysDontDance''
----
!!Other appearances by Mailer in media:
* ''Film/WhenWeWereKings'': Mailer covered the UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli-George Foreman 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" heavyweight fight, and actually wrote a book about it. In this documentary of the fight he is one of the most prominent TalkingHeads.
----
!! Other works by Norman Mailer contain examples of:
* {{Anorgasmia}}: In the short story "The Time Of Her Time" Sergius tries to make Denise experience orgasm, because she never could do so before. Eventually he [[spoiler:sodomizes her and calls her "a dirty little Jew", which causes her to climax after all]].
* EatingTheEyeCandy: In his {{Biography}} of Creator/MarilynMonroe ''Marilyn: a biography'' he writes about how she liked liked to go to Muscle Beach in Santa Monica on very hot days to watch the [[BriefsBoasting Speedo-clad]] [[MuscleBeachBum muscle boys]] [[WorkoutFanservice lift weights]] and demonstrate their various feats of strength when their [[WalkingShirtlessScene half-naked bodies]] were covered with sweat.
* InformedJudaism: Creator/MarilynMonroe's conversion to the faith in ''Marilyn: a biography''.
* ThirdPersonPerson: In his nonfiction works. In ''The Armies of the Night'', he referred to himself as "Mailer" and in ''The Fight'' as "Norman".
----