The obit linked by Ebbie states that Mailer invented the word "fug" in 1948 which I have always believed to be the case but according to the Urban Dictionary it was used by Steinbeck in 1945:

"Doc, that's a fuggin' lie," Mac said.
-- John Steinbeck, "Cannery Row" (1945)

The actress Tallulah Bankhead claimed she met Mailer at a party and said, "So, you're the guy who doesn't know how to spell fuck." (The story is sometimes told with Dorothy Parker as the speaker.) Mailer told an interviewer he never met Tallulah Bankhead, and in any case he knew how to spell four-letter words--the euphemism was used in order not to offend the sensibilities of readers in 1947.

In any case, you had a fuggin' good ride on the spaceship earth, Norman - RIP.