Short Fiction of Norman Mailer

The Short Fiction of Norman Mailer is a 1967 anthology of short stories by Norman Mailer. It is grouped into eight thematic sections and contains nineteen stories, many appearing in one of Mailer's miscellanies; thirteen were published in periodicals or other anthologies before appearing in this collection. The collection was reprinted in hardcover in 1980 and some of the stories were reprinted in other volumes.The collection ranges from stories that are only a couple of sentences, like "It", to longer novellas, like "A Calculus at Heaven". All included texts represent Mailer's early career, from his first published short story in 1941 while an undergraduate at Harvard to experimental stories from the mid-sixties. The tales range in content from war to urban life to science fiction, each managing to address the conflict between the individual and the social demands that echo throughout Mailer's oeuvre. Styles differ between stories, ranging from his early narrative approach of The Naked and the Dead to the more mature form found in Advertisements for Myself. The Short Fiction of Norman Mailer illustrates Mailer's early development as an influential voice in 20th-century American letters.