Norman Mailer and the Oxford English Dictionary

Authors

  • Jason Mosser Georgia Gwinnett College Author

Keywords:

Oxford English Dictionary , lexical innovation, slang and counterculture, Advertisements for Myself, Beat Generation language, New Journalism, literary influence

Abstract

Norman Mailer helped define and participate in the counterculture of the 1950s and 1960s, for which his essay “The White Negro” is a seminal historical, cultural, and linguistic source. One way to evaluate the impact of writers on their lives and times is to determine the number of citations they receive in the Oxford English Dictionary. Authors are chosen for the OED reading program based on their presentation of cross-varieties of English and interesting vocabulary, particularly new coinages. Based on the illustrative quotations attributed to Mailer in the Oxford English Dictionary, 196 matches exist. Mailer, the person and the author, emerges as one of the definitive sources for lexical coinages of his milieu.

Author Biography

  • Jason Mosser, Georgia Gwinnett College

    Jason Mosser is Professor of English at Georgia Gwinnett College. He received a BA and an MA in English from West Virginia University and a PhD in English from the University of Georgia. His primary research interest is the New Journalism of the 1960s-1970s. In addition to dozens of reviews, he has published articles in The Mailer Review and Literary Journalism Studies. His book, The Participatory Journalism of Michael Herr, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson, and Joan Didion, was published by Mellen Press in 2012.

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Published

2026-10-10

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 1 (2014): Future Bound

Section

Articles