Mary McCarthy (author)

Mary Therese McCarthy (June 21, 1912 – October 25, 1989) was an American novelist, critic, and political activist. She is best known for her novel The Group, which became very famous. McCarthy was also known for her marriage to the critic Edmund Wilson and 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 continue to be 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, leaving her and her three brothers to be raised by their grandparents and an uncle and aunt. This time was very difficult for her.

Later, she moved to live with her maternal grandparents in Seattle. Her grandfather was a lawyer who helped create important 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 openly about the lives of 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 and described a woman’s choices in a way that was surprising at the time.

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 also known for her clear writing style and for mixing real-life experiences with her stories.

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 Communist ideas but later opposed a leader named Stalin. She stood with Leon Trotsky and others who were targeted during unfair trials in Moscow. She also spoke out against writers and playrights she believed followed Stalin's harsh ways.

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 called Vietnam and Hanoi. After her first trip, she said on British television that she found no proof of the Viet Cong purposely harming women or children in South Vietnam.

She visited North Vietnam in March 1968, just after a big attack called the Tet Offensive caused trouble in South Vietnam. In her book Hanoi, 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 to Vietnam caused debate, especially after meeting a U.S. prisoner who later claimed he had been mistreated.

Personal life

Mary McCarthy married four times. Her first marriage was to Harald Johnsrud, an actor and playwright, 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, whom she married in 1938. They had a son named Reuel Wilson but divorced in 1946. Later 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 career diplomat. McCarthy passed away from lung cancer on October 25, 1989, at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.

Film portrayals

In the 2012 German movie Hannah Arendt, Mary McCarthy was played by Janet McTeer.

Selected works

Mary McCarthy wrote many books, including novels, short stories, memoirs, and essays. Some of her well-known novels 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.

There are also books written about Mary McCarthy, and some of her stories were turned into films, including a 1966 movie called The Group.