A lot of people have been trying to write encomiums about Norman Mailer, but it turns out that the lovable, hateable old coot actually saved everyone the trouble by writing his own, in 1979. "At the author's bedside were eleven of his fifteen ex-wives, twenty-two of his twenty-four children, and five of his seven grandchildren, of whom four are older than six of their uncles and aunts," he kidded. Well, sort of!

Because, well, here's the Times obit:

In the 1970s Mr. Mailer entered into a long feud with feminists and proponents of women's liberation, and in a famous 1971 debate with Germaine Greer at Town Hall in Manhattan he declared himself an 'enemy of birth control.' He meant it. By his various wives, Mr. Mailer had eight children, all of whom survive him: Susan, by Ms. Silverman; Danielle and Elizabeth Anne, by Ms. Morales; Kate, by Lady Jeanne; Michael Burks and Stephen McLeod, by Ms. Bentley; Maggie Alexandra, by Ms. Stevens; and John Buffalo, by Ms. Church. Also surviving are an adopted son, Matthew, by an earlier marriage of Ms. Church's, and 10 grandchildren.

Related: "We live in an era in which we've convinced ourselves that nearly any behavior is okay, as long as we're up front about it," the Observer's Doree Shafrir recently wrote, about the trend of journalistic self-branding.