For many, the moon landing was the defining event of the twentieth century. So it seems only fitting that Norman Mailer-the literary provocateur who altered the landscape of American nonfiction-wrote the most wide-ranging, far-seeing chronicle of the Apollo 11 mission. A classic chronicle of America’s reach for greatness in the midst of the Cold War, Of a Fire on the Moon compiles the reportage Mailer published between 1969 and 1970 in Life magazine- gripping firsthand dispatches from inside NASA’s clandestine operations in Houston and Cape Kennedy; technical insights into the magnitude of their awe-inspiring feat; and prescient meditations that place the event in human context as only Mailer could.

Praise for Of a Fire on the Moon

oThe gift of a genius … a twentieth-century American epic-a Moby Dick of space.o-New York

oMailer’s account of Apollo 11 stands as a stunning image of human energy and purposefulness… . It is an act of revelation-the only verbal deed to be worthy of the dream and the reality it celebrates.o-Saturday Review

oA wild and dazzling book.o-The New York Times Book Review

oStill the most challenging and stimulating account of (the) mission to appear in print.o-The Washington Post

Praise for Norman Mailer

o(Norman Mailer) loomed over American letters longer and larger than any other writer of his generation.o-The New York Times

oA writer of the greatest and most reckless talent.o-The New Yorker

oMailer is indispensable, an American treasure.o-The Washington Post

oA devastatingly alive and original creative mind.o-Life

oMailer is fierce, courageous, and reckless and nearly everything he writes has sections of headlong brilliance.o-The New York Review of Books

oThe largest mind and imagination (in modern) American literature … Unlike just about every American writer since Henry James, Mailer has managed to grow and become richer in wisdom with each new book.o-Chicago Tribune

oMailer is a master of his craft. His language carries you through the story like a leaf on a stream.o-The Cincinnati Post