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The Executioner's Song
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The Executioner's Song Paperback - 2012

by Norman Mailer; Foreword by Dave Eggers


About this book

This novel is noteworthy for its portrayal of Gary Gilmore, a violent product of America's prisons who became known for two reasons: first for robbing and murdering two men in 1976, and second, after being tried and convicted, he insisting on dying for his crime. In order to do so, he had to fight a system that seemed ironically intent to keep him alive. The Executioner’s Song is a Pulitzer Prize-winning true crime novel.

From the publisher

Norman Mailer's Pulitzer Prize-winning and unforgettable classic about convicted killer Gary Gilmore now in a brand-new edition. Arguably the greatest book from America's most heroically ambitious writer, The Executioner's Song follows the short, blighted life of Gary Gilmore who became famous after he robbed two men in 1976 and killed them in cold blood. After being tried and convicted, he immediately insisted on being executed for his crime. To do so, he fought a system that seemed intent on keeping him alive long after it had sentenced him to death. And that fight for the right to die is what made him famous. Mailer tells not only Gilmore's story, but those of the men and women caught in the web of his life and drawn into his procession toward the firing squad. All with implacable authority, steely compassion, and a restraint that evokes the parched landscape and stern theology of Gilmore's Utah. The Executioner's Song is a trip down the wrong side of the tracks to the deepest source of American loneliness and violence. It is a towering achievement-impossible to put down, impossible to forget.

First Edition Identification

This book was first published by Little, Brown & Company in 1979. This book is in hardcover format with 1,056 pages. 

Published in London by Hutchinson and Co in 1979, this edition has original blue cloth, titles to the spine in silver and copper, with yellow endpapers. 

Details

  • Title The Executioner's Song
  • Author Norman Mailer; Foreword by Dave Eggers
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Reprint
  • Pages 1136
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Grand Central Publishing, New York
  • Date 2012-05-08
  • Features Price on Product - Canadian, Table of Contents
  • ISBN 9780446584388 / 044658438X
  • Weight 2.4 lbs (1.09 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.9 x 5.9 x 2.1 in (22.61 x 14.99 x 5.33 cm)
  • Reading level 960
  • Library of Congress subjects Biographical fiction, Death row inmates
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2011945700
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

About the author

Norman Mailer was born in 1923 in Long Branch, New Jersey, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. In 1955, he was one of the co-founders of the Village Voice. He is the author of more than thirty books, including The Naked and the Dead; The Armies of the Night, for which he won a National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize; The Executioner's Song, for which he won his second Pulitzer Prize; Harlot's Ghost; Oswald's Tale; The Gospel According to the Son, The Castle and the Forest and On God. He died in 2007. Dave Eggers is the award-winning and bestselling author of many books, including the National Book Award finalist A Hologram for the King, as well as books for younger readers including What Can a Citizen Do?, Her Right Foot, This Bridge Will Not Be Gray, and The Lifters. He is the founder of the independent publishing company McSweeney's and the nonprofit organization ScholarMatch, in addition to cofounding The International Congress of Youth Voices and 826 Valencia, which has inspired similar organizations worldwide. Eggers lives in Northern California.
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The Executioner's Song
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The Executioner's Song
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The Executioner's Song

by Mailer, Norman

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ISBN 10
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The Executioner's Song
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The Executioner's Song

by Mailer, Norman

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Grand Central Publishing, 2012. Trade Paperback. Foreword by Dave Eggers. Very good in color illustrated wappers (paperback). Norman Mailer's Pulitzer Prize-winning and unforgettable classic about convicted killer Gary Gilmore now in a brand-new edition. Arguably the greatest book from America's most heroically ambitious writer, The Executioner's Song follows the short, blighted life of Gary Gilmore who became famous after he robbed two men in 1976 and killed them in cold blood. After being tried and convicted, he immediately insisted on being executed for his crime. To do so, he fought a system that seemed intent on keeping him alive long after it had sentenced him to death. And that fight for the right to die is what made him famous. Mailer tells not only Gilmore's story, but those of the men and women caught in the web of his life and drawn into his procession toward the firing squad. All with implacable authority, steely compassion, and a restraint that evokes the parched landscape and stern… Read More
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The Executioner's Song

by Mailer, Norman; Eggers, Dave [Foreword]

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