Hailed as one of the finest novels to come out of the Second World War, "The Naked" "and the Dead" received unprecedented critical acclaim upon its publication and has since become part of the American canon. This fiftieth anniversary edition features a new introduction created especially doe the occasion by Norman Mailer. Written in gritty, journalistic detail, the story follows an army platoon of foot soldiers who are fighting for the possession of the Japanese-held island of Anopopei. Composed in 1948, "The Naked and the Dead" is representative of the best in twentieth-century American writing.