Norman Mailer has dominated the American literary scene since he burst into prominence at the age of twenty-five with the publication of The Naked and the Dead. The author of more than twenty books, including An American Dream, The Armies of the Night, The Executioner's Song and Ancient Evenings, he is the preeminent novelist of his generation, a Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist, a movie director, politician, pugilist, antiwar activist, hipster, philosopher, major cultural force and enfant terrible. The winner of every significant national literary award, never out of the limelight, Mailer has been maligned, loved, hated, belittled, idolized-but never ignored.