Barbary Shore
Encyclopedia
Barbary Shore is Norman Mailer
's second published novel
, written after Mailer's great success with his 1948 debut The Naked and the Dead
. It concerns a protagonist who rents a room in a Brooklyn
boarding house with the intention of writing a novel. Wounded during World War II, he is an amnesiac, and much of his past is a secret to himself. After Rinehart & Company
published the novel in 1951, it received poor reviews and sold poorly. The failure of Barbary Shore and Mailer's next novel, The Deer Park
(1955) triggered a decade-long hiatus from the novel by Mailer, which ended with the publication of An American Dream
in 1965.
Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
's second published novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
, written after Mailer's great success with his 1948 debut The Naked and the Dead
The Naked and the Dead
The Naked and the Dead is a 1948 novel by Norman Mailer. It was based on his experiences with the 112th Cavalry Regiment during the Philippines Campaign in World War II...
. It concerns a protagonist who rents a room in a Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
boarding house with the intention of writing a novel. Wounded during World War II, he is an amnesiac, and much of his past is a secret to himself. After Rinehart & Company
Rinehart & Company
Rinehart & Company, an American publishing company, was the successor to Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. In 1946, following the departure of John C. Farrar, the company was renamed Rinehart & Company. The brothers Stanley M. Rinehart and Frederick R. Rinehart continued to operate the company until its...
published the novel in 1951, it received poor reviews and sold poorly. The failure of Barbary Shore and Mailer's next novel, The Deer Park
The Deer Park
The Deer Park is a Hollywood novel written by Norman Mailer and published in 1955 by G.P. Putnam's Sons after it was rejected by Mailer's publisher, Rinehart & Company, for obscenity. Despite having already typeset the book, Rinehart claimed that the manuscript's obscenity voided its contract with...
(1955) triggered a decade-long hiatus from the novel by Mailer, which ended with the publication of An American Dream
An American Dream
An American Dream is Norman Mailer's fourth novel, published by Dial Press. Mailer wrote it in serialized form for Esquire, consciously attempting to resurrect the methodology used by Charles Dickens and other earlier novelists, with Mailer writing each chapter against monthly deadlines...
in 1965.
Reviews
- "Last of the Leftists?", Time Magazine, May 28, 1951