Writing on the Wall & Other Lit Essays

Mary McCarthy (1912-1989) was an American critic, public intellectual, and author of more than two dozen books, including her New York Times bestseller, The Group. After graduating from Vassar in 1933 McCarthy moved to New York City and garnered attention as a cutting theater and book critic, contributing to a wide range of publications, such as the Nation, the New Republic, Harper's Magazine, and the New York Review of Books. She served on the editorial staff of the Partisan Review from 1937 to 1948. During the 1940s and 1950s she was a vocal opponent of both McCarthyism and communism. She wrote liberal critiques of culture and power to the end of her life, opposing the Vietnam War in the 1960s and covering the Watergate scandal hearings in the 1970s.

In addition to The Group, her other novels include The Company She Keeps and Memories of a Catholic Girlhood. McCarthy also proved herself to be one of literature's greatest traveling companions with the publication of Venice Observed and The Stones of Florence.

For her work, McCarthy won a number of awards, including two Guggenheim Fellowships. She died on October 25, 1989.