"Praised upon publication as a literary triumph inviting comparison with Tolstoy and Hemingway, Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead is both a monumental war saga and a devastating antiwar novel, exposing the primal nature of power through the interplay of soldiers and officers given an impossible and ultimately pointless mission on an obscure Pacific island during World War II. Written just after the war's end, the novel daringly wrestles with the authoritarian impulses in the American character. Published to mark the centennial of Mailer's birth and the 75th anniversary of his landmark debut novel, this expanded collector's edition includes twenty-three revealing letters--nine published her for the first time--written while Mailer was deployed in the Philippines and in Japan following the end of hostilities, detailed notes, and a full-color endpaper map of the fictional island of Anopopei."--Dust jacket.