THE NAKED AND THE DEAD (1948)
Based on his wartime experiences in the South Pacific; shot Mailer to fame.

ADVERTISEMENTS FOR MYSELF (1959)
A collection of essays, autobiography etc. Does exactly what it says on the tin.

THE ARMIES OF THE NIGHT (1968)
A Pulitzer prize-winning nonfiction account of the anti-Vietnam march on the Pentagon in 1967.

THE PRISONER OF SEX (1971)
Mailer takes on “the feminists”.

THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG (1979)
A “true-life” novel based on the story of the murderer Gary Gilmore; a bestseller that won him his second Pulitzer.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE SON (1997)
Mailer retells the Gospels — the Prince of Peace’s own account.

Erica Wagner is literary editor of The Times Norman Mailer’s The Castle in the Forest is reviewed opposite

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