In pictures: Norman Mailer's life

Norman Mailer, one of America's most celebrated and controversial authors, has died from renal failure aged 84.

A Harvard graduate and veteran of World War II, Mailer became a literary sensation with his 1948 novel The Naked and the Dead.

His private life was colourful. In 1960 he was accused of stabbing his second wife Adele with a knife. She failed to press charges.

Mailer, who was accused of being sexist by feminists, was married six times and had nine children.

Mailer was a fan of boxing, and wrote a biography of heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali.

An avowed leftist, he helped set up New York's Village Voice newspaper and was a critic of US involvement in Vietnam.

At the end of a six-decade literary career, Mailer, here with Gunther Grass this year, said his work was inspired by love for America - and disappointment it did not live up to its ideals.

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