Norman Mailer, winner of Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and non-fiction, greets well-wishers in the large audience as he enters the room with Club Program Director, George Dobbins.

Sporting a cane as deadly as his verbal darts, Norman Mailer waits patiently as his introduction recounts 57 incomparable years of awards, honors, and achievements throughout the literary world.

Joe Fink introduces Norman Mailer by recounting dozens of high points from the career of the redoubtable writer. He also humorously related the story of the chance encounter of a young college professor and an already famous literary figure -- yes, these two met before under most improbable circumstances!

Norman Mailer (1923-2007), pictured before his death at 84, four years after this event. He offered his unique perspective on politics, the war on terror, prospects for war with Iraq, American Empire vs. liberation, and presidential motives for war. Alternating between nuance and sledgehammer, Mailer both soothed and jolted his transfixed audience with prose that was really poetry accented with passion.

Norman Mailer pauses and surveys the reaction of the attentive audience.

Joe Fink presents the Club Medallion to Norman Mailer.

Mr. Mailer beams after accepting the first ever Commonwealth Club medallion from Club President Joe Fink. The medallion honors the Club's centennial and also recognizes the career accomplishments of a distinguished writer, whose works span the years from the time his first novel was published after World War II to the present.

As is traditional for Club speakers, Mr. Mailer responds to questions from the audience as well as from Barbara Lane, the Club's California Book Awards and literary coordinator.

Mailer graciously fields questions from the Commonwealth Club audience following his address. This image was processed with Neat Image to control high ISO digital noise, and then blended with an unprocessed version of the same image to restore some lost details. Some of the digital noise from the original has been left on his right hand, and is visible in the original size to show how much noise had to be removed.