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 "The gift of a genius . . . a twentieth-century American epic--a
Moby Dick of space."
--New York "Mailer'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."
--Saturday Review "A wild and dazzling book."
--The New York Times Book Review "Still the most challenging and stimulating account of [the] mission to appear in print."
--The Washington Post Praise for Norman Mailer "[Norman Mailer] loomed over American letters longer and larger than any other writer of his generation."
--The New York Times "A writer of the greatest and most reckless talent."
--The New Yorker "Mailer is indispensable, an American treasure."
--The Washington Post "A devastatingly alive and original creative mind."
--Life "Mailer is fierce, courageous, and reckless and nearly everything he writes has sections of headlong brilliance."
--The New York Review of Books "The 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."
--Chicago Tribune "Mailer is a master of his craft. His language carries you through the story like a leaf on a stream."
--The Cincinnati Post