Norman Mailer, who was co-founder of The Village Voice alternative newspaper in New York, and who won the Pulitzer Prize twice for The Armies of the Night in 1968, died of renal failure.
Norman Mailer had had recent health problems, and in October, he had an operation to remove scar tissue from his lung.
Norman Mailer was born in 1923 in New Jersey, and in his lengthy career he wrote many books, plays, poems, screenplays and essays.
Norman Mailer was known for his acerbic writing style commenting on political life in America and the wars in Vietnam and Iraq. He was also known for being very unpopular with supporters of the feminist movement.
Gina Centrello, the president of Norman Mailer's publisher, Random House, also paid tribute and said he was "one of the greatest writers of our time".
