Norman Mailer: Works and Days

The Dead Gook

A short story about a jungle patrol with partisans in the Philippines, drawn from Mailer's 1945 service with the 112th Cavalry — in Discovery, No. 1, a paperback quarterly co-edited by John W. Aldridge and Vance Bourjaily.

“The Dead Gook.” In Discovery, No. 1, edited by John W. Aldridge and Vance Bourjaily, 56–76. New York: Pocket Books, December 1952, softcover.

Story about a jungle patrol with partisans in the Philippines.

In his prefatory “advertisement” to this story — along with 52.2 and 53.2 — in Advertisements for Myself (59.13), Mailer notes that he has “no great pride in them, because they are respectable. They make no attempt to raise the house an inch or two.”

Rpt: Advertisements for Myself (59.13); 67.11; 68.32; 82.19.

First published: 1952-12
Form: short-story
Lennon & Lennon: 52.3
Cite as: /works/1952-12-dead-gook
Last updated: 2026-06-03