''Barbary Shore'' is

Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American writer, journalist and filmmaker. In a career spanning more than six decades, Mailer had 11 best-selling books, at least ...

's second published novel, written after Mailer's great success with his 1948 debut ''

The Naked and the Dead ''The Naked and the Dead'' is a novel written by Norman Mailer. Published by Rinehart & Company in 1948, when he was 25, it was his debut novel. It depicts the experiences of a platoon during World War II, based partially on Mailer's experienc ...

''. It concerns a protagonist who rents a room in a

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

boarding house with the intention of writing a novel. Wounded during World War II, he is an

amnesiac Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or brain diseases,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be temporarily caused by t ...

, and much of his past is a secret to him. After

Rinehart & Company Rinehart & Company was an American publishing company founded in 1946. Renamed Rinehart & Company in 1946, the publishing company merged with Henry Holt and Company and the John C. Winston Company in 1960, to form Holt, Rinehart and Winston (HRW). ...

published the novel in 1951, it received negative reviews and sold poorly. The failure of ''Barbary Shore'' and moderate success of Mailer's next novel, ''

The Deer Park ''The Deer Park'' is a Hollywood novel written by Norman Mailer and published in 1955 by G.P. Putnam's Sons after it was rejected by Mailer's publisher, Rinehart & Company, for obscenity. Despite having already typeset the book, Rinehart claime ...

'' (1955) triggered a decade-long hiatus from the novel by Mailer, which ended with the publication of '' An American Dream'' in 1965.

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* 1951 American novels Rinehart & Company books Novels by Norman Mailer Novels set in New York City {{1950s-novel-stub