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- Cross-references correspondence, audio/video appearances, and unpublished material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.projectmailer.net, 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
October 24
Miami and the Siege of Chicago (1968) was published in book form on October 24, 1968. Mailer had first covered the conventions for Harper's, then reworked that reporting into a standalone political narrative.
More from 1968 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 hardcover edition is available through booksellers and university libraries. You can order a copy directly via this Bookshop/Amazon link or request it through your local librarian. Questions about the chronology or future updates can be sent to the Society at normanmailersociety [at] gmail [dot] com.