Mary McCarthy (author)

Mary Therese McCarthy (June 21, 1912 – October 25, 1989) was an American writer, critic, and someone who worked for change in society. She is best known for her novel The Group, which became very famous. McCarthy was also known for marrying the critic Edmund Wilson and for her close friendship with her colleague Hannah Arendt.

Throughout her career, McCarthy received many honors and awards. She won the Horizon Prize in 1949 and was awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships in 1949 and 1959. She was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the American Academy in Rome. In 1973, she gave an important lecture called Can There Be a Gothic Literature? in Leiden, the Netherlands. That same year, she became a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

McCarthy also received the National Medal for Literature and the Edward MacDowell Medal in 1984. She was honored with degrees from many universities, including Bard, Bowdoin, Colby, Smith College, Syracuse University, the University of Maine at Orono, the University of Aberdeen, and the University of Hull. Her work and ideas are still remembered today.

Early life and education

Mary McCarthy was born on June 21, 1912, in Seattle, Washington. Her parents passed away during the flu epidemic of 1918, and she and her three brothers were raised by their grandparents and an uncle and aunt. This was a hard time for her.

She later lived with her grandparents in Seattle. Her grandfather was a lawyer who helped make laws to protect workers, and he influenced her views on fairness and helping others. McCarthy wrote about her early life in her books Memories of a Catholic Girlhood and How I Grew.

She went to school at the Convent of the Sacred Heart - Forest Ridge in Seattle and Annie Wright Seminary in Tacoma. She then attended Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where she graduated in 1933 with a Bachelor of Arts cum laude and was chosen for Phi Beta Kappa. Her brother, Kevin McCarthy, became an actor known for films like Death of a Salesman and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Career and public life

Mary McCarthy wrote many famous books. Her first novel, The Company She Keeps, talked about writers and thinkers in New York in the 1930s. One of her short stories, "The Man in the Brooks Brothers Shirt," was published in 1941.

Her most popular book, The Group, became a bestseller in 1963 and stayed on the New York Times Best Seller list for almost two years. McCarthy was known for her clear writing style.

McCarthy had many friends in the writing world, including Hannah Arendt. After Arendt passed away, McCarthy helped prepare Arendt’s unfinished book The Life of the Mind for publication. McCarthy taught at schools such as Bard College and Sarah Lawrence College.

Ideology

Mary McCarthy left the Catholic Church when she was young and became an atheist.

In the 1930s, she spent time with people who supported ideas about a fair society but later opposed a leader named Stalin. She stood with Leon Trotsky and others who faced unfair treatment.

Opposition to Vietnam War

In 1967 and 1968, McCarthy traveled to Vietnam to share her views against the war. She wrote two books about her experiences. After her first trip, she said she found no proof that certain fighters in South Vietnam purposely harmed women or children.

She visited North Vietnam in March 1968, just after a big attack called the Tet Offensive. In her book, she described daily life there during the war, noting that people worked together to support their country. North Vietnam often knew about incoming bombings and McCarthy had to hide during air raids. Her trips caused debate.

Personal life

Mary McCarthy married four times. Her first marriage was to Harald Johnsrud, an actor, in 1933. She later had a relationship with critic Philip Rahv. Her most famous marriage was to her second husband, writer and critic Edmund Wilson, in 1938. They had a son but later divorced in 1946. That same year, she married Bowden Broadwater, who worked for The New Yorker, but they also divorced. In 1961, she married James R. West, a diplomat. McCarthy passed away from lung cancer in 1989 at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.

Film portrayals

In a 2012 German movie called Hannah Arendt, Mary McCarthy was played by an actress named Janet McTeer.

Selected works

Mary McCarthy wrote many books, including novels, short stories, memoirs, and essays. Some of her well-known books are The Company She Keeps, The Oasis, The Groves of Academe, A Charmed Life, The Group, Birds of America, and Cannibals and Missionaries. She also wrote memoirs such as Memories of a Catholic Girlhood and essays like The Stones of Florence.

Some books were written about Mary McCarthy, and some of her stories became films, including a movie called The Group in 1966.