Mary Therese McCarthy (June 21, 1912 – October 25, 1989) was an American author and critic. She was politically active for many years. June 21 is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 193 days remaining. ... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday in the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... October 25 is the 298th day of the year (299th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 67 days remaining. ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Early life

Born in Seattle, Washington, McCarthy was orphaned at the age of six when both her parents died in the great flu epidemic of 1918. She was raised in very unhappy circumstances by her Catholic father's parents in Minneapolis, Minnesota under the direct care of an uncle and aunt she remembered for harsh treatment and abuse. Flag Seal Nickname: The Emerald City Location Location of Seattle in King County and Washington Coordinates , Government Country State County United States Washington King County Incorporated December 2, 1869 Mayor Greg Nickels Geographical characteristics Area     City 369. ... The Spanish Flu Pandemic, also known as , , or the 1918 flu, was a pandemic caused by an unusually severe and deadly strain of the subtype H1N1 of the species Influenza A virus. ... 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... This article is about the city in Minnesota. ...

When the situation became intolerable, she was taken in by her maternal grandparents in Seattle: her Jewish grandmother, Augusta Morganstern and her Protestant grandfather, Harold Preston. McCarthy explores the complex events of her early life in Minneapolis and her coming of age in Seattle in her successful memoir, Memories of a Catholic Girlhood. Her actor brother, Kevin McCarthy went on to star in such movies as Death of a Salesman (1951) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). Actor Kevin McCarthy in the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers Kevin McCarthy (February 15, 1914 in Seattle, Washington) is an American actor. ... Cover to the Penguin Group edition. ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a 1956 science fiction film. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Under the guardianship of the Prestons, McCarthy studied at the Annie Wright Seminary in Tacoma, and went on to graduate from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1933. Closeup of the Vassar Main Building Vassar College is a highly selective, private, coeducational liberal arts college situated in Poughkeepsie, New York. ... Poughkeepsie City of Poughkeepsie Town of Poughkeepsie Poughkeepsie, Arkansas This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Beliefs as an adult

She left the Catholic church as a young woman when she became an atheist. In her contrarian fashion, McCarthy treasured her religious education for the classical foundation it provided her intellect while at the same time she depicted her loss of faith and her contests with religious authority as essential to her character.

In New York, she moved in "fellow-traveling" Communist circles early in the 1930s, but by the latter half of the decade she had repudiated Soviet-Style Communism, expressing solidarity with Leon Trotsky after the Moscow Trials, and vigorously countering playwrights and authors she considered to be sympathetic to Stalinism. Official language(s) None, English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area  Ranked 27th  - Total 54,520 sq mi (141,205 km²)  - Width 285 miles (455 km)  - Length 330 miles (530 km)  - % water 13. ... A fellow traveller is a person who sympathizes with the beliefs of a particular organization, but does not belong to that organization. ... This article or section is missing references or citation of sources. ... Soviet redirects here. ... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... (Russian: Лев Давидович Троцкий; also transliterated Leo, Lev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij, Trockij and Trotzky) (November 7 [O.S. October 26] 1879 – August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (Лев Давидович Бронштейн), was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. ... The Moscow Trials were a series of trials of political opponents of Joseph Stalin during the Great Purge. ... Stalinism is a brand of political theory, and the political and economic system named after Josef Stalin, who implemented it in the Soviet Union. ...

As part of the Partisan Review circle and as a contributor to The Nation and The New Republic, she garnered attention as a cutting critic, advocating the neccessity for creative autonomy that transcends doctrine. During the 1940s and 1950s she became a liberal critic of both McCarthyism and Communism. She maintained her commitment to liberal critiques of culture and power to the end of her life, arguing against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and covering the Watergate scandal hearings in the 1970s. Partisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003. ... This article is about the U.S publication. ... For other uses, see the disambiguation section. ... // Events and trends World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrination, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atomic bomb. ... The 1950s were the decade that spanned the years 1950 through 1959, although some sources say from 1951 through 1960. ... Sen. ... Combatants Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) United States of America South Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand the Philippines Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) Strength ~1,200,000 (1968) ~420,000 (1968) Casualties South Vietnamese dead: 230,000 South Vietnamese wounded: 300,000 US dead... The outrageously crowded Woodstock festival epitomized the popular antiwar movement of the 60s. ... The term Watergate refers to a series of events, spanning from 1972 to 1975, that began with U.S. President Nixons administrations abuse of power toward the goal of undermining the Democratic Party and the opposition to the Vietnam War. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ...

Social life

She married four times. In 1933 she married Harold Johnsrud, an actor and would-be playwright. Her best-known spouse was the writer and critic Edmund Wilson, whom she married in 1938 after leaving her lover Philip Rahv, and by whom she had a son, Reuel Wilson, an academic at the University of Western Ontario. 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Edmund Wilson (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer, noted chiefly for his literary criticism. ... 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Philip Rahv (March 10, 1908 – December 22, 1973) was an American literary critic and essayist. ... The University of Western Ontario is a public, non-denominational university located in London, Ontario, Canada. ...

Though she broke ranks with some of her Partisan Review colleagues as they swerved toward conservative and reactionary politics after World War II, she carried on life-long friendships with Dwight Macdonald, Nicola Chiaromonte, Philip Rahv and Elizabeth Hardwick. Perhaps most prized of all was her close friendship with Hannah Arendt, with whom she maintained a sizable correspondence widely regarded for its intellectual rigor. Dwight Macdonald (1906-1982) was an American writer, social critic, philosopher, and political radical. ... Philip Rahv (March 10, 1908 – December 22, 1973) was an American literary critic and essayist. ... Elizabeth Hardwick (July 27, 1916) is an American literary critic, novelist, and short-story writer. ... Hannah Arendt (October 14, 1906 – December 4, 1975) was a German political theorist. ...

Literary reputation

Her debut novel, The Company She Keeps received critical acclaim as a succès de scandale, depicting the social milieu of New York intellectuals of the late 1930s with unreserved frankness. After building a reputation as a satirist and critic, McCarthy enjoyed popular success when her 1963 novel The Group remained on the New York Times Best Seller list for almost two years. Her work is noted for its precise prose and its complex mixture of autobiography and fiction. The New York Times Best Seller List is a weekly chart in The New York Times newspaper that keeps track of the best-selling books of the week. ...

Her feud with fellow writer Lillian Hellman formed the basis for the play Imaginary Friends by Nora Ephron. The feud had simmered since the late 1930s over ideological difference, particularly the question of the Moscow Trials and Hellman's support for the "Popular Front" with Stalin. McCarthy provoked Hellman in 1979 when she famously said on The Dick Cavett Show: "every word [Hellman] writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'." Hellman responded by filing a $2.5 million libel suit against McCarthy. Both women died before it reached its conclusion.^[1] McCarthy's biographers have noted that the resulting irony of Hellman's defamation suit is that she brought more significant disrepute upon herself by forcing McCarthy and her supporters to prove that she was a liar in court. Muriel Gardiner claims that Hellman's memoir, Pentimento (1973), was partly based on a fictionalized account of Gardiner's life. The claim was denied by Hellman. Lillian Hellman Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American playwright, romantically involved for thirty years with mystery and crime writer Dashiell Hammett. ... Nora Ephron Nora Ephron (born May 19, 1941 in New York City, New York) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and novelist. ... The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of many talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on several television networks, including: ABC daytime (March 4, 1968-January 24, 1969) (originally titled This Morning) ABC prime time (May 26-September 19, 1969) ABC late night (December 29, 1969-January 1, 1975... An American psychoanalyst and psychiatrist, Muriel Morris Gardiner Buttinger was born November 23, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois and died February 6, 1985 in Princeton, New Jersey. ...

McCarthy was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. She won the National Medal for Literature and the MacDowell Medal in 1984. McCarthy died of cancer on October 25, 1989 in New York City at the age of 77. Langston Hughes, National Institure of Arts and Letters This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... October 25 is the 298th day of the year (299th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 67 days remaining. ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Flag Seal Nickname: The Big Apple, The Capital of the World[1], Gotham [2], Metropolis Location Location in the state of New York Government Counties (Boroughs) Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,214. ...

Notes

1. ^ [Frances Kiernan Seeing Mary Plain: A Life of Mary McCarthy, New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2000, 702]

Selected works

• The Company She Keeps (1942), Harvest/HBJ, 2003 reprint:ISBN 0156027860
• The Oasis (1949), Backinprint.com, 1999 edition:ISBN 1583483926
• The Groves of Academe (1952), Harvest/HBJ, 2002 reprint:ISBN 0156027879
• A Charmed Life (1955), Harvest Books, 1992 reprint:ISBN 0156167743
• Venice Observed (1956), Harvest/HBJ, 1963 edition:ISBN 015693521X (the 1963 edition lacks the illustrations present in the original book)
• The Stones of Florence (1956), Harvest/HBJ, 2002 reprint of 1963 edition:ISBN 0156027631 (the 1963 edition lacks the illustrations present in the original book)
• Memories of a Catholic Girlhood (1957), Harvest/HBJ, 1972 reprint:ISBN 0156586509 (autobiography)
• The Group (1962), Harvest/HBJ, 1991 reprint:ISBN 0156372088, adapted as a 1966 movie of the same name.
• Vietnam (1967)
• The Writing on the Wall (1970)
• Birds of America (1971), Harcourt 1992 reprint:ISBN 0156126303
• The Mask of State: Watergate Portraits (1974)
• Cannibals and Missionaries (1979), Harvest/HBJ, 1991 reprint:ISBN 0156153866 (novel explores the psychology of terrorism)
• Ideas and the Novel (1980)
• How I Grew (1987), Harvest Books, ISBN 0156421852 (intellectual autobiography age 13–21)
• Intellectual Memoirs (1992)

1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ...

Books about McCarthy

• Sabrina Fuchs Abrams, Mary Mccarthy: Gender, Politics, And The Postwar Intellectual, (2004), Peter Lang Publishing, ISBN 082046807X
• Frances Kiernan, Seeing Mary Plain: A Life of Mary McCarthy, (2000), W.W. Norton, ISBN 0393323072
• Eve Stwertka (editor), Twenty-Four Ways of Looking at Mary McCarthy: The Writer and Her Work, (1996), Greenwood Press, ISBN 0313297762
• Carol Brightman (editor), Between Friends: The Correspondence of Hannah Arendt and Mary McCarthy 1949-1975, (1996), Harvest/HBJ, ISBN 0156002507
• Carol Brightman, Writing Dangerously: Mary McCarthy And Her World, (1992), Harvest Books, ISBN 0156000679
• Joy Bennet, Mary McCarthy; An Annotated Bibliography, (1992), Garland Press, ISBN 0824070283
• Carol Gelderman, Mary McCarthy: A Life, 1990, St Martins Press, ISBN 0312005652

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Mary McCarthy (author)

• Literary Encyclopedia (in-progress)
• Brief bio at Kirjasto (Pegasos)
• Brief bio at Vassar College