Seeing Mary Plain: A Life of Mary McCarthy

Seeing Mary Plain: A Life of Mary McCarthyFrom her Partisan Review days to her controversial success as the author of The Group, to an epic libel battle with Lillian Hellman, Mary McCarthy brought a nineteenth century scope and drama to her emblematic twentieth century life. Dubbed by Time as "quite possibly the cleverest woman America has ever produced," McCarthy moved in a circle of ferociously sharp tongued intellectuals all of whom had plenty to say about this diamond in their midst.

From her Partisan Review days to her controversial success as the author of The Group, to an epic libel battle with Lillian Hellman, Mary McCarthy brought a nineteenth-century scope and drama to her emblematic twentieth-century life. Dubbed by Time as "quite possibly the cleverest woman America has ever produced," McCarthy moved in a circle of ferociously sharp-tongued intellectuals all of whom had plenty to say about this diamond in their midst. Frances Kiernan's biography does justice to one of the most controversial American intellectuals of the twentieth century. With interviews from dozens of McCarthy's friends, former lovers, literary and political comrades-in-arms, awestruck admirers, amused observers, and bitter adversaries, Seeing Mary Plain is rich in ironic judgment and eloquent testimony. A Los Angeles Times Best Book of 2000 and a Washington Post Book World "Rave.""

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 05/17/2002
ISBN: 9780393323078
Pages: 848
Weight: 2.53lbs
Size: 9.24h x 6.10w x 1.54d