Norman Mailer, writer and icon, buried in Provincetown

(Vincent DeWitt for The Boston Globe)

Mr. Mailer's widow, Norris Church Mailer, spoke to reporters after the ceremony, holding the flag given to veterans' widows. Mr. Mailer served in the Army in World War II and made his literary debut with a novel based on his experiences.

By Bryan Marquard, Globe Staff

PROVINCETOWN -- A few dozen family members and close friends gathered today at a cemetery at the tip of Cape Cod to say farewell to Norman Mailer, the larger-than-life writer whose career spanned nearly six decades and more than 30 books.

One by one, a dozen speakers and musicians walked to the front and stood next to the mahogany casket, which was flanked in a semicircle by six photos depicting the writer from childhood through the years when he had grown famous.

Years ago, Mr. Mailer penned his own obituary and asked one of his sons, John Buffalo, to read it at the writer's funeral.

Titled "Novelist Shelved," it began: "Norman Mailer passed away yesterday after celebrating his fifteenth divorce and sixteenth wedding. 'I just don’t feel the old vim,' complained the writer recently."

Mr. Mailer actually was married six times. His wife, Norris Church, sat in front next to Mr. Mailer's sister, Barbara Wasserman, and his sons Matthew and John. The funeral at the Provincetown Cemetery was held under a green tent that barely blocked the bright afternoon sun that shined in a cloudless sky.

"I'm just so grateful to have spent 35 years with him," she said at the conclusion of the service, before returning to tent with other family members as Mr. Mailer's casket was lowered into the grave.

The service was private, but the family allowed a pool reporter from The Provincetown Banner to stand with the gathering and share details later with other media. Only a handful of photographers and reporters were present.

The venue kept to a minimum the number of bold-face names and paparazzi, despite Mailer's decades as a celebrity author.

Mr. Mailer's son-in-law Peter McEachern began the service with a trombone solo, "Lament," a jazz standard by J.J. Johnson.

Mr. Mailer died Saturday at New York City's Mount Sinai Hospital at 84. The cause of death was kidney failure.

Over the years, Mr. Mailer's writing won acclaim, but it also sparked controversy. His first book, "The Naked and the Dead" (1948), based on his experiences as a combat infantryman in the Phillipines in World War II, was both a literary and commercial success. He won two Pulitzer Prizes, one for "The Armies of the Night" (1968), and one for "The Executioner's Song" (1979).

Mr. Mailer's heyday was the turbulent 1960s, but he kept writing as the years progressed. He published two books this year.

Mr. Mailer began living year-round in Provincetown, which is at the tip of Cape Cod, in the 1990s, after summering there since 1945.

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