It Takes a Thief to Know a Thief

Four Biographies of Norman Mailer

Authors

  • Deborah Martinson Author

Keywords:

literary biography, biographical criticism, authorship and subjectivity, life writing, archival research, literary reputation

Abstract

An examination of the four major biographies that have been written about Norman Mailer. The scholarship within the books is invaluable and all four of these books—complete with errors, distortions, and idiosyncrasies—nevertheless give this reader, and thousands of other readers, Norman Mailer, a trace of the man.

Author Biography

  • Deborah Martinson

    Deborah Martinson has an interest in auto/biography and fiction within particular historical and political contexts that informs her research and her teaching. Her biography, Lillian Hellman: A Life with Foxes and Scoundrels (2005), followed her research for PBS’s The Lives of Lillian Hellman. Martinson’s book, In the Presence of Audience: The Self in Diaries and Fiction (2003) focused on Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, Violet Hunt, and Doris Lessing. Martinson is researching and writing the life of Virginia Durr of Alabama. In summer, 2009 she taught biography as a senior fellow at the Norman Mailer Writers Colony in Provincetown. An Associate Professor of English Writing, Martinson teaches creative nonfiction in all of her writing classes.

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Published

2026-03-14

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2009): Beyond Fiction

Section

Articles

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