''Of a Fire on the Moon'' (, ) is a work of non-fiction by

Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...

which was serialised in ''Life'' magazine in 1969 and 1970, and published in 1970 as a book. It is a documentary and reflection on the Apollo 11 Moon landing from Mailer's point of view.

Writing and publication

After spending time at the

space center Below is a list of space facilities by country. Algeria * Algerian Space Agency Brazil * Alcântara Space Center * Barreira do Inferno Launch Center * Space Operations Center Belgium * Liege Space Center * Euro Space Center Canada * Jo ...

and Mission Control in Houston, and witnessing the launch of the

Saturn V Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, with multistage rocket, three stages, and powered with liquid-propellant r ...

Cape Kennedy , image = cape canaveral.jpg , image_size = 300 , caption = View of Cape Canaveral from space in 1991 , map = Florida#USA , map_width = 300 , type =Cape , map_caption = Location in Florida , location ...

in Florida, Mailer began writing his account of the historic voyage at his home in

Provincetown, Massachusetts Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Provincet ...

, during marathon writing sessions to meet his deadlines for the magazine. His account, which ran to 115,000 words, was published between August 1969 and January 1970 in three long installments—''A Fire on the Moon'', ''The Psychology of Astronauts'', and ''A Dream of the Future's Face''. In a foreword to Mailer's first installment, ''Life'' Managing Editor Ralph Graves introduced "some 26,000 words—the longest non-fiction piece Life has ever published in one issue." On February 26, 1970, after the magazine series had concluded, Mailer wrote to Apollo 11 commander,

Neil Armstrong Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. ...

, "I've worked as assiduously as any writer I know to portray the space program in its largest, not its smallest, dimension". His account was published as a book called ''Of a Fire on the Moon'' in 1970. In the UK, it was published with its original article title, ''A Fire on the Moon''.

Critical reception

Alvin Kernan, in his book ''

The Imaginary Library ''The Imaginary Library: An Essay on Literature and Society'' is a 1982 book by American literary critic and professor Alvin Kernan. In the book, Kernan considers literature as a social institution and considers ways in which the reigning Romantic ...

'', included a chapter on ''Of a Fire on the Moon'', arguing that Mailer's book is representative of the declining relevance of the Romantic conception of literature to the present day.

$112,500 coffee table edition

The 40th anniversary of the first Moon landing was marked in 2009 by the release of an abridged, limited edition of the text, re-packaged with images from

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

and ''Life'' magazine. This production retitled the work, ''MoonFire'', and was presented in an aluminium box with a lid shaped like the crater-pocked surface of the Moon; the object was mounted on four legs resembling the

Apollo Lunar Module The Apollo Lunar Module (LM ), originally designated the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), was the lunar lander spacecraft that was flown between lunar orbit and the Moon's surface during the United States' Apollo program. It was the first crewed ...

's struts. Thus, the coffee table book came inside its own lunar-themed "coffee table", with an uneven surface (see photograph)
/span>. The package included a numbered print of the famous portrait of

Buzz Aldrin Buzz Aldrin (; born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.; January 20, 1930) is an American former astronaut, engineer and fighter pilot. He made three spacewalks as pilot of the 1966 Gemini 12 mission. As the Lunar Module ''Eagle'' pilot on the 1969 A ...

standing on the Moon, framed in plexiglass
/span> and signed by the astronaut himself—and enclosed a

lunar meteorite A lunar meteorite is a meteorite that is known to have originated on the Moon. A meteorite hitting the Moon is normally classified as a transient lunar phenomenon. Discovery In January 1982, John Schutt, leading an expedition in Antarctica fo ...

. Only 12 were created and the price was $112,500. Norman Mailer died two years before the package was launched. A conventional hard back edition of the same volume was released in 2015.

Painting on first edition cover

The painting on the cover of the first edition (

Little, Brown & Co Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...

, 1970) is ''Le Monde Invisible'', a 1954 oil painting by

René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature and bounda ...

. Mailer describes seeing this painting in Chapter 5 ("A Dream of the Future's Face") of the first part ("Aquarius"). "In the foyer was a painting by Magritte, a startling image of a room with an immense rock situated in the center of the floor." The 1970 dust jacket cites that the painting is part of a private collection.

Editions and title variations

# ''Life'' serializations: #: Part I: "A Fire on the Moon" — ''Life'' magazine, 29 August 1969. #: Part II: "The Psychology of Astronauts" — ''Life'' magazine, 14 November 1969. #: Part III: "A Dream of the Future's Face" — ''Life'' magazine, 9 January 1970. # ''Of a Fire on the Moon'' —

, Boston, 1970, . # ''A Fire on the Moon'' —

Weidenfeld & Nicolson Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (established 1949), often shortened to W&N or Weidenfeld, is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It has been a division of the French-owned Orion Publishing Group since 1991. History George Weidenfeld a ...

, London, 1970, . # ''MoonFire: The Epic Journey of Apollo 11'' — Taschen GmbH, Köln, 2009, , .

Resources

Gallery of Mailer's research materials, hand written notes, and manuscripts for this book
Norman Mailer archive at the University of Texas.

References

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Of a Fire on the Moon Non-fiction books by Norman Mailer American non-fiction books Spaceflight books Apollo 11 Works originally published in Life (magazine) Literature first published in serial form Little, Brown and Company books Weidenfeld & Nicolson books 1970 non-fiction books