Norman Mailer

The executioner's song

Hailed as one of the finest novels to come out of the Second World War, The Naked and the Dead received unprecedented critical acclaim upon its publication and has since become part of the American canon. This fiftieth anniversary edition features a new introduction created especially for the occasion by Norman Mailer. Written in gritty, journalistic detail, the story follows an army platoon of foot soldiers who are fighting for the possession of the Japanese-held island of Anopopei. Composed in 1948, The Naked and the Dead is representative of the best in twentieth-century American writing.

50th Anniversary Edition, With a New Introduction by the Author

The Naked and the Dead

Bert Stern

TASCHEN has paired Mailer's original text (his 1973 biography Marilyn) with Bert Stern's extraordinary photographs- widely considered the most intimate ever taken of Monroe- to create a fitting tribute to the woman who, at the time of her death in 1962, was the world's most famous, a symbol of glamour and eroticism for an entire generation. But though she was feted and adored by her public, her private life was that of a little girl lost, desperate to find love and security. Mailer's Marilyn is beautiful, tragic, and complex. As Mailer reflects upon her life- from her bleak childhood through to the mysterious circumstances of her death - she emerges as a symbol of the bizarre decade during which she reigned as Hollywood's greatest female star. This book,conceived by Lawrence Schiller, Mailer's collaborator on five works, combines the author's masterful text with Stern's penetrating images of the 36-year-old Marilyn. Photographed for Vogue magazine over three days at the Bel-Air Hotel, Marilyn had never allowed such unfettered access, nor had she looked so breathtakingly beautiful. Six weeks later, mysteriously, she was dead. In this bold synthesis of literary classic and legendary portrait sitting, Mailer and Stern lift the veils of confusion surrounding Monroe - the woman, the star, the sex symbol - and offer profound insight into an iconic figure whose true personality remains an enigma even today.

Norman Mailer

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