- Won two Pulitzer Prizes, for his non-fiction book "The Armies of the Night" (1969) and his novel "The Executioner's Song" (1980).
- His breakthrough novel "The Naked and The Dead" (1948) is based on his personal experiences during World War II and is considered one of the "100 best novels in English language" by the Modern Library.
- Coined the term "factoid", defined as a wholly spurious "fact" invented to create or prolong public exposure or to manipulate public opinion, in his 1973 biography of Marilyn Monroe. Mailer himself described a factoid as "facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper".
- Stated that he would never win a Nobel Prize because he once had stabbed his then wife Adele Morales with a penknife at a party (1960).
- Earned an Engineering Science degree in 1943 from Harvard University.
- Being one New Journalism's leading authors, he also wrote noted biographies about Marilyn Monroe, Pablo Picasso and Lee Harvey Oswald.
- Was one of several celebrity witnesses to testify at the trial of the "Chicago Eight" featuring defendants, Abbie Hoffman, David Dellinger, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden, Bobby Seale, Rennie Davis, John Froines and Lee Weiner (1969-1970).
- Mentioned in the song "Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken?" by Lloyd Cole & The Commotions.
- When Mailer was writing his 1951 novel "Barbary Shore" in his apartment at 246 Fulton Street (Ovington building) in New York, he had no plan to have a Russian spy as a character. As he worked on it, he gradually introduced a Russian spy in the US as a minor character. As the novel progressed, the spy became the dominant character. After the novel was completed, the US Immigration Service arrested a man who lived just one floor above Mailer in the same apartment building. He was Colonel Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, alleged to be the top Russian spy working in the U.S. at that time. He had been working under the alias Emil R. Goldfus, a name he acquired from a forged birth certificate of a dead K.G.B. colonel. Abel was portrayed by Mark Rylance in an Oscar-winning performance in Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies (2015).
- Member of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 40th Cannes International Film Festival in 1987.
- Studied aeronautical engineering at Harvard University, graduating in 1943.
- Lived in New York City and Provincetown, MA with his sixth wife Norris.
- Ran in the Democratic Party primary to Mayor of New York City, but finally wasn't chosen candidate (1969).
- Born to Isaace Barnett Mailer and his wife Fanny Schneider, he grew up in Brooklyn, New York.
- Father of Michael Mailer, Matthew Mailer, Stephen Mailer, Kate Mailer, Maggie Mailer, and John Buffalo Mailer.
- Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". New Revision Series, Vol. 130, pp. 273-282. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005.
- Nearly 11 years after the death of Marilyn Monroe, Mailer appeared on the cover of "Time Magazine" with the cinema legend. The July 17 1973 edition of "Time Magazine" featured a composite of photos of Mailer and Monroe. Monroe's picture was a full-color portrait taken by Bert Stern, from the last photographic sitting before her death, and dominated the cover. Her image dwarfs a smaller black & white photo of Mailer. The cover-story heralds the publication of "Marilyn," the book documenting her life in pictures, featuring a 90,000 word biography by Mailer. Mailer reportedly was displeased that "Time" chose to play up Monroe and diminish him, visually, on the cover. The publication of the coffee table book was a major event of that publishing season. The book retailed for $19.95, which is approximately $100 in 2008 money, when factored for inflation.
- A huge fan of author Neil Gaiman.
- He is nominated for a 2013 New Jersey Hall of Fame in the General Category.
- As of 2020, he is the only person to win both a Pulitzer Prize and a Razzie.
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