Pulitzer-winning author Norman Mailer, who penned 'The Naked and the Dead,' dead at age 84

Norman Mailer, the macho prince of American letters who for decades reigned as the country's literary conscience and provocateur with such books as "The Naked and the Dead" and "The Executioner's Song" died Saturday, his literary executor said. He was 84.

Mailer died of acute renal failure at Mount Sinai Hospital, said J. Michael Lennon, who is also the author's biographer.

From his classic debut novel, "The Naked and the Dead," set in the South Pacific in World War II, to such masterworks of literary journalism as "The Armies of the Night," the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner always got credit for his insight, passion …