1946
Discharged from the Army in May, Mailer spends the summer at North Truro, near Provincetown, beginning the war novel that becomes The Naked and the Dead — drawn from the hundreds of letters he had written overseas. After Little, Brown passes on the manuscript over its language, Mailer accepts Rinehart's $1,250 advance in November.
May — discharged
May — Mailer is discharged from the Army.
Summer — North Truro and the war novel
From June to September Mailer and Bea rent a cottage in North Truro, near Provincetown, where he begins his war novel, working from the hundreds of letters he had written from overseas. It is the start of a lifelong attachment: Mailer will spend the greater part of most summers for the next six decades in Provincetown, the artists’ colony at the tip of Cape Cod.
Fall — Little, Brown passes; Rinehart’s advance
Adeline Lubell, an editor at Little, Brown, reads part of the manuscript, but the firm offers no contract because of the novel’s obscene language. In November Mailer accepts Rinehart‘s $1,250 advance for The Naked and the Dead. He would finish the book about fifteen months after beginning it.
Related pages
- 1945 | 1947
- The Naked and the Dead | Provincetown, Massachusetts | Rinehart & Company | Beatrice Silverman