Compiled by J. Michael Lennon, Donna Pedro Lennon, and edited by Gerald R. Lucas, Norman Mailer: Works and Days is the most complete timeline of Mailer’s public and private endeavors. The volume tracks manuscripts, magazine contributions, interviews, speeches, awards, friendships, and travels from Mailer’s birth through his final projects, providing researchers with an indispensable roadmap to the archive.
Why It Matters
- Documents the gestation and reception of every major Mailer book, film, and play
- Cross-references correspondence, audio/video appearances, and unpublished material
- Highlights the collaborators, editors, and institutions that shaped Mailer’s career
- Winner of the Norman Mailer Society’s 2019 Robert F. Lucid Award for Mailer Studies
Read It Online
Works and Days continues as a free digital edition at worksdays.normanmailer.us, edited by Jerry Lucas with J. Michael Lennon and Donna Pedro Lennon as founding editors. It extends the print volume with audio and video, post-2007 material, full texts, and an annual bibliography of works by and about Mailer: curated Work pages, a register of more than 3,400 entries, and a Days page for every year of Mailer’s life. It also feeds the Society’s daily look back:
Coming Up in Mailerian History
November 16
On God: An Uncommon Conversation (2007) was published on November 16, 2007, days after Mailer's death. The book grew out of taped conversations with J. Michael Lennon on religion, doubt, and spiritual method.
More from 2007 in Works and Days
Source: Lennon, J. Michael and Lennon, Donna. Norman Mailer: Works and Days. Ed. Gerald R. Lucas. 2018.
How to Get It
The Society sells the hardcover directly for $75, with every copy supporting the Norman Mailer Society. At the annual conference it is on the Society table, by card or in cash; the rest of the year, contact us for a mail order. It is also available through booksellers, including this Bookshop/Amazon link, or by request through your local librarian. Questions about the chronology or future updates can be sent to the Society at normanmailersociety [at] gmail [dot] com.
From the Society