(born 1923) Rugged author, journalist, film-maker and critic whose work is marked by macho bravado as well as liberal politics. Mailer came to fame with the passion and violence of The Naked and the Dead (1948), based on his Second World War service. He returned to the spotlight with The American Dream (1965) and Why are We in Vietnam? (1967), as well as his vivid, personalized journalistic accounts of peace marches (the Pulitzer and NBA honoree Armies of the Nïght, 1969) and the 1968 conventions (Miami and the Siege of Chicago, 1968). He also explored this non-fiction approach in The Executioner Song (1979). Mailer continues to act, talk and write, including the 1995 Oswald’s Tale, about John F. Kennedy’s assassin.