Mary McCarthy (author) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mary McCarthy
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McCarthy in 1963
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| Born | Mary Therese McCarthy June 21, 1912 Seattle, Washington, U.S. |
| Died | October 25, 1989 (aged 77) New York City, U.S. |
| Education | Vassar College |
| Notable awards | American Academy of Arts and Letters (1960) Edward MacDowell Medal (1984) National Medal for Literature (1984) |
| Spouse | Harald Johnsrud (m. 1933) Edmund Wilson (m. 1938) Bowden Broadwater (m. 1946) James West (m. 1961) |
| Children | 1 |
| Relatives | Kevin McCarthy (brother) |
Mary Therese McCarthy (born June 21, 1912 – died October 25, 1989) was an American writer, critic, and political activist. She was famous for her novel The Group. She was also well-known for her marriage to the critic Edmund Wilson and her long-standing disagreement with playwright Lillian Hellman.
Mary McCarthy won several important awards for her writing. These included the Horizon Prize in 1949 and two Guggenheim Fellowships. She was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the American Academy in Rome. In 1973, she was chosen as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She also received the National Medal for Literature and the Edward MacDowell Medal in 1984.
Becoming a Writer and Public Figure
Mary McCarthy's first novel, The Company She Keeps, was published in 1942. It became very popular and caused some discussion because it openly showed the lives of smart people in New York in the late 1930s. One famous short story from this book is "The Man in the Brooks Brothers Shirt."
McCarthy became known for her sharp and witty writing. She became very successful when her novel The Group was published in 1963. This book stayed on the New York Times Best Seller list for almost two years! Her writing is known for being very clear and for mixing parts of her own life with made-up stories.
Famous Disagreements
Mary McCarthy had a long-running disagreement with another famous writer, Lillian Hellman. This feud even inspired a play called Imaginary Friends. Their disagreement started in the late 1930s because they had different political ideas.
In 1979, McCarthy famously said on a TV show, "every word [Hellman] writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the'." Hellman then sued McCarthy for a lot of money, saying McCarthy had damaged her reputation. The lawsuit ended when Hellman passed away in 1984. Many people thought the lawsuit actually made Hellman's reputation worse, as McCarthy and her supporters worked to show that Hellman had indeed lied.
Friendships and Teaching
Even though McCarthy had strong opinions, she kept many lifelong friends. These included writers like Dwight Macdonald and Elizabeth Hardwick. Her closest friendship was with Hannah Arendt, a very important thinker. They wrote many letters to each other that are still studied today. After Arendt died, McCarthy helped prepare Arendt's unfinished book, The Life of the Mind, for publication.
McCarthy also taught at Bard College and Sarah Lawrence College during her career.
Her Beliefs and Views
Mary McCarthy grew up Catholic but decided to become an atheist when she was young. She valued her religious education because it helped her think clearly. However, she also felt that losing her faith and questioning religious rules were important parts of who she became.
In the 1930s, she was involved with groups that were friendly towards Communism. But by the end of that decade, she disagreed with the Soviet Union's style of Communism. She supported Leon Trotsky and spoke out against writers who seemed to support Stalinism.
McCarthy was a strong critic who believed that creative writing should be free and not follow any strict rules. In the 1940s and 1950s, she criticized both McCarthyism (a time of intense anti-Communist fear in the U.S.) and Communism. She continued to speak out against power and for freedom of thought throughout her life. She was against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and reported on the Watergate scandal hearings in the 1970s.
Reporting on the Vietnam War
In 1967 and 1968, Mary McCarthy traveled to North and South Vietnam. She went there to write about the war from a viewpoint that was against it. She wrote two books about what she saw: Vietnam and Hanoi.
McCarthy visited North Vietnam in March 1968, shortly after the Tet Offensive caused a lot of damage in South Vietnam. In her book Hanoi, McCarthy gave a rare English-language description of what life was like in North Vietnam during the war. She described a very organized society where everyone worked together to help with the war effort. North Vietnam often received warnings before bombing attacks, and McCarthy frequently had to find shelter from American bombs.
Her Early Life and Family
Mary McCarthy was born in Seattle, Washington. Her parents, Roy and Martha, both died in the flu epidemic of 1918. This left Mary and her three younger brothers, Kevin, Preston, and Sheridan, as orphans.
They were raised by their Catholic grandparents in Minneapolis, Minnesota. However, Mary remembered being treated harshly by an uncle and aunt who were also living there. When the situation became too difficult, Mary went to live with her maternal grandparents in Seattle. Her grandmother, Augusta Morganstern, was Jewish, and her grandfather, Harold Preston, was a well-known lawyer. Her brothers were sent to boarding school.
McCarthy believed her grandfather helped shape her liberal views. He had helped create one of the first laws in the country to protect workers who were injured on the job. Mary wrote about her difficult childhood and growing up in Seattle in her memoir, Memories of a Catholic Girlhood. Her younger brother, Kevin McCarthy, became a famous actor. He starred in movies like Death of a Salesman (1951) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).
Mary McCarthy went to schools in Seattle and Tacoma. She then attended Vassar College in New York, where she graduated in 1933 with honors.
Marriages
Mary McCarthy was married four times.
- In 1933, she married Harald Johnsrud, an actor.
- Her second husband was the famous writer and critic Edmund Wilson, whom she married in 1938. They had one son named Reuel Wilson.
- After their divorce, she married Bowden Broadwater in 1946.
- In 1961, she married James R. West, who was a diplomat.
Her Passing
Mary McCarthy passed away from lung cancer on October 25, 1989, in New York City.
In Movies
In the 2012 German movie Hannah Arendt, the character of Mary McCarthy is played by the actress Janet McTeer.
Selected Books
- The Company She Keeps (1942)
- The Oasis (1949)
- Cast a Cold Eye (1950)
- The Groves of Academe (1952)
- A Charmed Life (1955)
- Memories of a Catholic Girlhood (1957) (her autobiography)
- The Group (1963) (made into a movie in 1966)
- Vietnam (1967)
- Hanoi (1968)
- Birds of America (1971)
- The Mask of State: Watergate Portraits (1974)
- How I Grew (1987) (her intellectual autobiography)
Images for kids
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McCarthy in 1963
See also
In Spanish: Mary McCarthy para niños
