On Saturday, November 10th, 2007, the world lost a great writer and friend of Red Room: legendary writer and icon Norman Mailer. He was 84.

A novelist, journalist, playwright, screenwriter, film director, mayoral candidate, and Village Voice co-founder, Mailer was known for his unapologetic opinions and staunch advocacy for the causes he supported. Nearly thirty works of Mailer’s fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama have been published.

Despite a long and varied career, Mailer’s passion for his craft never wavered.

“I knew there was one thing I wanted to be, and that was a writer,” Mailer once said.

Critics and the public embraced Mailer early in his career. At age twenty-five, Mailer’s first novel, The Naked and the Dead, became a bestseller in 1948. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize twice (for The Armies of the Night and The Executioner’s Song), a National Book Award, and many other honors for his work.

Throughout his career, Mailer often walked where others feared to tread. From the beginning when he bore witness to the true horrors of war, to the end where he envisioned the nature of God (On God: An Uncommon Conversation, released in October), Mailer’s experience of life and literature was just as grand and nothing short of uncommon.

Mailer was a member of Red Room and will be sorely missed. His Red Room Author Page remains as a memorial and testament to an extraordinary man.