Mary McCarthy

Sean Witters (Brandeis University)

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The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Nicole Kennedy (University of Newcastle), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 21 Jun 1912
Died 25 Oct 1989
Activity 1932-1975

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Activities

Primary

Essayist
Letter-writer/ Diarist
Literary Critic/ Historian
Novelist
Story-writer
Travel writer

Other

Autobiographer
Cultural Theorist/ Critic
Political writer
Satirist
Teacher/ Professor

Resources

McCarthy's Works

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Mary McCarthy emerged out of the "New York intellectual" scene of the 1930s to become a mainstay of the literary culture of the Cold War era. From her first novel to her posthumous memoir, McCarthy explored perception, intimacy, social dynamics, gender roles, ideology, and culture with cutting wit, deliberate prose, and terrible honesty. While the defining feature of McCarthy’s life might have been her commitment to speaking and writing "on the contrary", she was not content to simply celebrate dissidence, using her writing, instead, to study the way public and private dissent conditions the individual's identity.

Mary Therese McCarthy was born June 21, 1912 in Seattle, Washington to Roy McCarthy and Therese "Tess" Preston. Roy, the son of a wealthy Minneapolis grain

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7212 words

Citation: Witters, Sean. "Mary McCarthy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 March 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3028, accessed 02 April 2025.]

3028 Mary McCarthy 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.