1969

The Armies of the Night wins the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the George Polk Award in the spring. Mailer runs for the Democratic nomination for Mayor of New York with Jimmy Breslin on a '51st state' platform, finishing fourth of five in the 17 June primary. In the summer he covers the Apollo 11 moon landing for Life — the first installments of what becomes Of a Fire on the Moon — and receives an honorary doctorate from Rutgers.

Norman Mailer, 1969 (photograph by Paul Schwartzman)

Winter

6 January — Mailer agrees to run for the Harvard Board of Overseers (69.0); he is not elected (69.9). His Black Power essay “Looking for the Meat and Potatoes” (69.1) appears in Look on 7 January.

Spring — the prizes

12 March — At the National Book Awards ceremony, The Armies of the Night (68.8) wins the arts-and-letters award; Miami and the Siege of Chicago (68.25) was also nominated (69.3, 69.4).

Early May — The Armies of the Night wins the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction (69.25, 69.26) and the George Polk Memorial Award — completing the sweep that confirms Mailer’s standing as the foremost practitioner of the New Journalism.

The award reached Mailer by wire: a 5 May telegram from Columbia University’s acting president, Andrew W. Cordier — “Columbia University Trustees today awarded you a Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction for ‘The Armies of the Night.’ Congratulations.”

Spring–summer — the mayoral campaign

Mailer runs for the Democratic nomination for Mayor of New York, with Jimmy Breslin for President of the City Council, on the proposal to make New York City the 51st state. Announced officially on 1 May, the Mailer–Breslin campaign ran through the 17 June primary, finishing fourth of five Democratic candidates. Mailer’s manifesto was “Why Are We in New York?” (69.41); the campaign is documented in Running Against the Machine (69.80).

The "5th State" Mailer–Breslin campaign poster, 1969

Norman Mailer and Jimmy Breslin during the 1969 campaign

4 June — Mailer receives an honorary doctorate from Rutgers.

Norman Mailer receiving an honorary doctorate at Rutgers, 4 June 1969

Summer–fall — the moon

29 August — Life publishes “A Fire on the Moon” (69.81), the first and longest of three installments on the Apollo 11 landing — the beginning of Of a Fire on the Moon (71.1) — with a cover photograph of Mailer. “The Psychology of Astronauts” (69.83) follows on 14 November.

Context

Apollo 11 lands on the moon on 20 July; the Stonewall uprising and the Woodstock festival mark the year; Richard Nixon is inaugurated in January and John Lindsay is re-elected mayor of New York in November.

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Last updated: 2026-06-18