As America's foremost public intellectual, Norman Mailer was a ubiquitous presence in our national life—on the airwaves and in print—for more than 60 years. Spanning his career and covering plenty of ground, the 48 essays here include unique perspectives on Jackie Kennedy, Ernest Hemingway, Marilyn Monroe, Jimmy Carter, and George Plimpton, plus literary assessments of works by Mark Twain, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Jonathan Franzen. Among the other highlights are Mailer's early essay "A Credo for the Living"; his acclaimed 1957 meditation on hipsters, "The White Negro"; multiple selections from his seminal collection Advertisements for Myself; and a never-before-published essay on Sigmund Freud.