Norman Mailer Reading Order

10 books (1957–2015)

This complete series comprises ten anthologies edited by Norman Mailer, spanning from 1957 to 2015 and blending literary fiction with non-fiction selections. The collections showcase interviews, experimental fiction, essays, and early works by established and emerging writers, with titles ranging from Writers At Work to UNION: 50 Years of Writing from Singapore and 15 Years of Drunken Boat. Read these anthologies in publication order to follow Mailer's editorial vision across nearly six decades of curated writing.

Start with Writers At Work: The Paris Review Interviews, the first of 10 books in the Anthologies series.

#	Title
1	Writers At Work: The Paris Review Interviews 1957Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	This Was Your War 1960Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	We Accuse 1965Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
4	Anti-Story: An Anthology of Experimental Fiction 1971Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
5	The Cosmos Reader 1971Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
6	Unknown California 1985Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
7	First Fiction: An Anthology of the First Published Stories by Famous Writers 1994Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
8	Writing Los Angeles 2002Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
9	First Words: Earliest Writing from Favorite Contemporary Authors 2009Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
10	UNION: 50 Years of Writing from Singapore and 15 Years of Drunken Boat 2015Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

22 books (1991–2009)

The Nation series is a 22-book collection of literary and nonfiction works published between 1991 and 2009, assembled as a complete series. These books should be read in publication order, beginning with Los Gusanos by John Sayles and concluding with the final entry in 2009. The collection features contributions from notable writers including Gore Vidal, Christopher Hitchens, Dennis Kucinich, and others, spanning essays, screenplays, and political commentary that reflect the perspectives and concerns of The Nation magazine's editorial vision during this period.

Start with Los Gusanos(By: John Sayles), the first of 22 books in the Nation series.

#	Title
1	Los Gusanos(By: John Sayles) 1991Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	The Best of The Nation(By: Victor Navasky,vanden Heuvel, Katrina) 2000Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	The Betrayal of America(By: Vincent Bugliosi) 2001Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
4	Dreaming War(By: Gore Vidal) 2002Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
5	A Prayer for America(By: Dennis Kucinich) 2003Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
6	Napoleon's Glance(By: William Duggan) 2003Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
7	Shaking the Foundations(By: Pete Hamill,Bruce Shapiro) 2003Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
8	The Red and the Blacklist(By: Norma Barzman) 2003Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
9	Unsustainable(By: Eamonn Fingleton) 2003Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
10	A Hole in the World(By: Jonathan Schell) 2004Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
11	Imperial America(By: Gore Vidal) 2004Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
12	Killed(By: David Wallis) 2004Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
13	Love, Poverty, and War(By: Christopher Hitchens) 2004Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
14	Murdered by Capitalism(By: John Ross) 2004Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
15	Silver City and Other Screenplays(By: John Sayles) 2004Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
16	Taking Back America(By: Katrina Vanden Heuvel,Robert L. Borosage) 2004Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
17	The Good, the Bad and the Dolce Vita(With: Mickey Knox) 2004Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
18	The High Times Reader(By: Ann Nocenti,Paul Krassner,Ruth Baldwin) 2004Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
19	The Truth About Camp David(By: Clayton E. Swisher) 2004Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
20	Deserter from Death(By: Howard Zinn,Daniel Singer) 2005Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
21	Blood, Class and Empire(By: Christopher Hitchens) 2009Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
22	Genocide of the Mind(By: Vine Deloria Jr.) 2009Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

28 books (1959–2016)

Norman Mailer's non-fiction output spans 28 works published between 1959 and 2016, covering subjects ranging from American political conventions and the space program to celebrity biography and true crime. This complete collection should be read in publication order, beginning with The White Negro and progressing through landmark works like The Armies of the Night, A Fire on the Moon, The Executioner's Song, and Marilyn. Mailer's essays, reportage, and extended meditations showcase his distinctive literary approach to factual subjects, blending historical analysis with personal observation and cultural criticism.

Start with The White Negro, the first of 28 books in the Non-Fiction series.

#	Title
1	The White Negro 1959Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	Miami and the Siege of Chicago 1968Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	The Armies of the Night 1968Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
4	Why Are We at War? 1968Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
5	A Fire on the Moon 1970Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
6	Prisoner of Sex 1971Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
7	Marilyn 1973Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
8	The Faith of Graffiti 1974Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
9	The Fight 1975Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
10	Genius & Lust 1976Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
11	Some Honorable Men: Political Conventions, 1960-1972 1976Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
12	A Transit To Narcissus: A Facsimile of the Original Typescript 1978Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
13	The Executioner's Song 1979Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
14	Of Women and Their Elegance 1980Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
15	Huckleberry Finn: Alive at 100 1985Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
16	Language of Men 1989Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
17	How the Wimp Won the War 1992Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
18	Oswald's Tale 1995Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
19	Portrait of Picasso As a Young Man 1995Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
20	Muhammad Ali: Ringside(With: Joyce Carol Oates,Alex Haley) 1999Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
21	Into the Mirror: The Life of Robert P. Hanssen 2002Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
22	The Spooky Art 2003Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
23	The Big Empty 2006Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
24	On God: An Uncommon Conversation 2007Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
25	Mind of an Outlaw 2013Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
26	Vidal vs. Mailer(With: Gore Vidal) 2013Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
27	Selected Letters of Norman Mailer 2014Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
28	Ten Thousand Words a Minute 2016Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

10 books (1959–2003)

Norman Mailer's short story collection series spans ten volumes published between 1959 and 2003, presenting a complete retrospective of his shorter fiction and selected essays across the decades. These books should be read in publication order, beginning with Advertisements for Myself, to trace the evolution of Mailer's literary voice and thematic concerns throughout his career. The series includes his original collections alongside later comprehensive volumes that gather and organize his shorter works, offering readers both individual snapshots and broader overviews of this influential author's output in the short form.

Start with Advertisements for Myself, the first of 10 books in the Short Story Collections series.

#	Title
1	Advertisements for Myself 1959Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	Deaths for the Ladies 1962Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	Existential Errands 1973Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
4	The Short Fiction of Norman Mailer 1980Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
5	Essential Mailer 1982Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
6	Pieces 1982Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
7	Pontifications 1982Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
8	Pieces and Pontifications 1983Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
9	The Time Of Our Time 1998Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
10	Modest Gifts 2003Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

18 books (1948–2007)

Norman Mailer's standalone novels span nearly six decades from 1948 to 2007, comprising 18 works across literary fiction and non-fiction that should be read in publication order. His diverse body of work includes the early war novel The Naked and the Dead, numerous essays and cultural commentaries, and later experimental fiction such as Ancient Evenings and Tough Guys Don't Dance. This complete collection traces the evolution of one of America's most provocative and versatile writers throughout the latter half of the twentieth century.

Start with The Naked and the Dead, the first of 18 books in the Standalone Novels series.

#	Title
1	The Naked and the Dead 1948Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	Barbary Shore 1952Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	The Deer Park 1955Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
4	The Presidential Papers 1963Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
5	An American Dream 1966Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
6	Cannibals and Christians 1966Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
7	Bull Fight: A Photographic Narrative 1967Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
8	Why Are We in Vietnam? 1968Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
9	Maidstone 1971Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
10	St. George and the Godfather 1972Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
11	Watching My Name Go By 1974Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
12	Of a Small and Modest Malignancy, Wicked and Bristling with Dots 1980Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
13	After the White Negro 1982Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
14	Ancient Evenings 1983Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
15	Tough Guys Don't Dance 1984Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
16	Harlot's Ghost 1991Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
17	The Gospel According to the Son 1997Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
18	The Castle in the Forest 2007Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible