View source for An American Dream Expanded

{{DISPLAYTITLE:''An American Dream'' Expanded}}
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{{notice|This project is coming in the spring of 2019. If you’d like to contribute, see the [[Talk:An American Dream Expanded|discussion page]]. }}


[[File:65-7c.jpg|thumb|Dust wrapper of the British edition published by Andre Deutsch on 26 April, 1965.]]
{{cquote|''An American Dream'' is Norman Mailer’s first novel in nine years. He wrote it at a high pitch, each chapter appearing in ''Esquire'' while he was still at work on the next: a method now unusual but common enough among the great novelists of the nineteenth century, which contributed much to the quivering tension of the story.

The theme of challenge suggested by Mailer’s choice of this method is very much a part of the book. His hero challenges the Devil himself. Stephen Rojack kills his wife, lies to the police, is interrogated by them, discovers a woman, his wife’s opposite, in whom he senses the truth and strength he longs for. The ingredients of his story are deliberately those familiar from many a thriller or movie-murder—suspense, sex—but Rojack lives these experiences with a fierce intensity which shatters their popular image and reveals extraordinary meanings behind them. He is a man who believes in God and the Devil, and to whom God is courage, not love. His actions become explosively significant because he feels that any one of them might open the crack through which the Devil’s power, or that of God, could flood in.

Simply on the level of ‘what will happen next?’ ''An American Dream'' grips relentlessly: will the suspicious police pounce on Rojack? Will he and Cherry, his new girl, be able to
establish the love which has begun to grow between them? But beyond this there is the immense exhilaration springing from the boldness and passion with which Norman Mailer tackles his central theme of man as the battleground for God and the Devil.

This is his most exciting book since ''The Naked and the Dead'', which became a modern classic and has sold, over two and a half million copies in the English language.|source=Dust jacket text, British edition, Andre Deutsch, April 1965.}}

==Gallery==
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|File:AAD-Esquire.jpg|Title and opening paragraph of the first installment of ''An American Dream'' in ''Esquire'', January 1964.
|File:AAD-Proofs.jpg|Cover of uncorrected page proof of the Dial Press edition.
|File:65-7.jpg|Front and spine of dust wrapper of the Dial Press edition.
|File:1964 NM by Ann Barry.jpg|Back panel of dust wrapper of the Dial press edition: photograph of Mailer by Anne Barry.
|File:Aad-ad.jpg|Advertisement in the ''New York Times'' for the ''Esquire'' serial version, 22 April 1964.
|File:AAD-Cover-Mockup.jpg|An early ''AAD'' cover mockup.
|File:Saturday Review.jpg|Cover of 20 March 1965 ''Saturday Review'' depicting Mailer.
|File:AAD-Bestsellers.jpg|Best seller list in ''Book Week'', 30 May 1965, showing the novel in No. 10 position.
|File:19650315-Invitation.png|Invitation to the reception for the novel at the Village Vanguard in New York on publication day, 15 March 1965.
|File:19660829-Invitation-Screening.png|An invitation to the screening of the film ''An American Dream''.
|File:AAD-Movie-Ad.jpg|Advertisement for the film version of the novel from Warner Brothers Pressbook.
|File:1964-Bookseller.jpg|Cover of the British trade journal, ''The Bookseller'', 26 December 1964, featuring the forthcoming British edition of ''An American Dream'', published by Andre Deutsch.
|File:1964-PW.jpg|Cover of ''Publishers’ Weekly'' featuring the forthcoming Dial Press version of ''An American Dream'', 12 October 1964.
|File:65-7a.jpg|Cover of the third Dell paperback edition, published February 1970.
|File:65-7b.jpg|Paperback.
|File:65-7d.jpg|Paperback.
|File:65-7-Chinese Cover.jpg|Chinese hardcover.
|File:65-7-Vintage Cover.png|Vintage cover.
|File:65-7-Harper Ed.jpg|Harper cover.
|File:20190302_L_The_New_York_Time.JPG|Advertisement in the ''NYT''.
|File:PW_May_1965.JPG|Best seller list of the week in ''Publishers Weekly'', May 1965, showing ''[[An American Dream]]'' in No. 6 position.
|File:19640302_Rights_and_Permissions.JPG|Announcement of Warner Brothers studios purchasing the movie rights to ''[[An American Dream]]'', March 2, 1964
|File:19650130.jpg|Book Week News
|File:19650923-Mary.Bancroft.Letter.JPG|Mary Bancroft Letter.
|File:19650316 1.JPG|Advertising Copy page 1 of 3
|File:19650316 2.JPG|Advertising Copy page 2 of 3
|File:19650316 3.JPG|Advertising Copy page 3 of 3
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==Blurbs and Snippets==
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|File:1963-AAD-Snippet.jpg|“I’ll finish my book in another year of bleeding at the typewriter,” Norman Mailer sighed at the Spindletop the other night. (1963)
|File:1963-NYW.jpg|'''Norman Mailer''' has just come into a large chunk of money. Dial, the book publishers, have given him a reported $125,000 for the rights to his as yet untitled and unwritten novel. . . . (1963)
|File:Projectmailer.net-pm-Special-ListFiles-AAD-Time_Snippet.JPG|"(B)ecause ''Mailer'' is a born writer, it is a heady ride"
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==Letters==
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|File:19650417 Letter.jpg|Granville Hicks, in his review of Norman Mailer’s ''An American Dream'' [''SR'', March 20], tells us that Mailer’s main character has no reality, the other characters are “dummies,” the writing is sloppy, and the plot is absurd. One might say the same about Dostoevsky’s ''Notes from the Underground''. Perhaps ''An American Dream'' is not a great book, but it is most certainly not a “bad joke.” It contains scenes of great power and pages of brilliant imagery. It holds one’s interest. It is an entertaining book to read. ~W. K. MASON, Madison, Wis.
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== Reviews ==
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|File:Buckley_Miami_Herald.JPG|William F. Buckley, Jr. states: “it was {{NM}} who developed the cult of the Hipster—the truly modern American who lets the bleary world go by doing whatever it bloody well likes, because nothing it does can upset the Hipsters’ inexhaustible Cool.” (''The Miami Herald'', September 26, 1965) [[There's Hope in Mailer|Read More »]]
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[[Category:Projects]]