Norman Mailer (1923-2007) was the author of more than three dozen works across a range of genres, including The Armies of the Night (1968), which won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction and the National Book Award, and The Executioner's Song (1979), which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

J. Michael Lennon, emeritus professor of English at Wilkes University, is Norman Mailer's archivist, editor, and authorized biographer, and founding president of the Norman Mailer Society. His books include Norman Mailer: A Double Life (2013) and Selected Letters of Norman Mailer (2014). He lives in Westport, Massachusetts.