Norman Mailer was one of the most famous writers of his generation. People who have never read a word that he wrote know who he was because of his fame as a novelist or journalist, or his notoriety because of his womanising, his rivalries with other writers, his appearances on television, his political outspokenness & his prominence as a leading intellectual of his era. A provocative chronicler of the second half of the twentieth century, both as a journalist & a novelist, works such as The Naked & the Dead & The Executioner`s Song vividly define a moment in American history. J. Michael Lennon was authorised by Mailer to write his biography, & as such has had access to family & friends, & to unpublished documents & letters. Norman Mailer: A Double Life reflects Mailer`s dual identities: journalist & activist, devoted family man & notorious philanderer, intellectual & fighter, writer & public figure, Jew & atheist. Whether you admired him or loathed him, he was remarkable & unique. His was an astonishing life.