The Short Fiction of Norman Mailer

A Dell paperback gathering nineteen of Mailer's short stories with a new, self-deprecating introduction ("Hunger for Method, Greed for Gold"). Published 11 May 1967; eighteen of the stories had appeared earlier in Mailer's miscellanies.

Cover of The Short Fiction of Norman Mailer (Dell, 11 May 1967)

The Short Fiction of Norman Mailer (New York: Dell, 11 May 1967; softcover, 285 pp., 95¢) gathers nineteen stories with an original introduction, the working title for which was “Hunger for Method, Greed for Gold.” Eighteen of the nineteen — all but “The Shortest Novel of Them All” — had appeared previously in Mailer’s miscellanies (Advertisements for Myself, The Presidential Papers, Cannibals and Christians); thirteen had appeared in periodicals or collections before that. “The Man Who Studied Yoga” and “The Time of Her Time” were later reprinted in The Time of Our Time (98.7).

The introduction is a characteristic exercise in inverted boast: “It has been remarked that the short fiction of this author is neither splendid, unforgettable, nor distinguished, and I hasten hereby to join such consensus… He does not have the gift to write great short stories, or perhaps even very good ones… There is a terrible confession to make: he thinks the short story is relatively easy to write.”

Editions

The British edition combines this collection with Existential Errands (72.7) under the title The Essential Mailer (82.19). A hardcover edition — the first — appeared in 1980 from Howard Fertig (80.23), alongside separate Fertig editions of Barbary Shore (51.1) and The Deer Park (55.4). Shohakusha (Tokyo) published A Selection from the Short Fiction of Norman Mailer (68.32).

Referenced by 17

Works

Days

1967

Publishers