The Story of Mary Maclane

by Mary MacLane

Few books in US history have provoked more outrage and debate than The Story Of Mary Maclane did when it was first published in Chicago in 1902. With unprecedented frankness, the 19 year old author revealed her utter scorn for conformity and puritanism, her refusal to accept what she regarded as the stifling boredom and pettiness of middle class life, and her passionate insistence on sexual freedom, a life of adventure and excitement. Not for nothing has she been hailed as the first 'New Woman' in literature, the first flapper and a precursor of surrealism. This lively collection features the complete text of that signature work, plus a generous selection of her other writings, reprinted here for the first time; and edited and introduced by Penelope Rosemont. Two special sections focus on her short but sensational movie career, and her long association with the city she eventually chose as her home, and includes critical appreciations of her work by other Chicago Clarence Darrow, Henry Blake Fuller and Harriet Monroe. "The Story Of Mary Maclane is little short of a miracle. No more marvelous books was ever born of a sensitive, precocious brain." [Clarence Darrow]

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Memoir

214 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1902

About the author

Mary MacLane was a controversial Canadian-born American writer whose frank memoirs helped usher in the confessional style of autobiographical writing. MacLane was known as the "Wild Woman of Butte."

MacLane was a very popular author for her time, scandalizing the populace with her shocking bestselling first memoir and to a lesser extent her two following books. She was considered wild and uncontrolled, a reputation she nurtured, and was openly bisexual as well as a vocal feminist. In her writings, she compared herself to another frank young memoirist, Marie Bashkirtseff, who died a few years after MacLane was born, and H. L. Mencken called her "the Butte Bashkirtseff."

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

She would have loved tumblr

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A new favorite. The entire time I was reading The Story of Mary MacLane, I was thinking, I cannot wait to read this again. I would recommend keeping this book at your bedside, like a motel bible, so that it can be referred throughout your days.

A fascinating woman and a fascinating book. The fact that she wrote this at 19 is astounding. It is the best articulation I have read of life's simple truth: everything sucks and nothing matters. The one thing that would improve my reading experience would be a time machine, so I give my 19 year-old self a copy. Mary MacLane deserves greater attention as a great feminist mind, but also as a skilled, witty writer.

I do wish the publisher had stuck with the original title, I Await the Devil's Coming, but maybe I'm a little melodramatic sometimes. No matter. This is a wonderful book.

[Shea]

“Are there many things in this cool-hearted world so utterly exquisite as the pure love of one woman for another woman?”

Need I say more??

[molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was so girl of her

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Totes wacked out nutty pants stream of conscious manic verbal diarrhea from a proto-libertine silent picture era wannabe porn star. The world wasn't exactly her oyster. An oyster would be far too small for the likes of Ms. Mary Maclane. Self-assured, self-absorbed, and utterly unconcerned with social norms, this is either the diary of the world's most perfect narcissist, or the the magnum opus of an iconoclastic genius. Whether considered a feminist revolutionary, a literary nympho, or just a crackpot who worshiped no one but herself, her writings are memorable, even if not particularly deep.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

one nutty lady!

[Ally · Rating 5 out of 5]

someone get this woman anti-depressants, please.

if i tried to list all my favourite quotes from this book i’d just end up accidentally plagiarizing the whole thing, but i’m still gonna try to find some of my top ones:


“I have in me a quite unusual intensity of life. I can feel. I have a marvelous capacity for misery and for happiness”

“Along some lines I have gotten to the edge of the world. A step more and I fall off. I do not take the step. I stand on the edge, and I suffer. Nothing, oh, nothing on the earth can suffer like a woman young and all alone!”

“How we eager fools tread on each other’s heels, and tear each other’s hair, and scratch each other’s faces, in our furious gallop after Happiness!”

“What is wrong? What is right? What is good? What is evil? The words are merely words, with word-meanings. Truth is Love, and Love is the only Truth, and Love is the one thing out of all that is real”

“We think we progress wonderfully in the arts and sciences as one century follows another. What does it amount to? It does not teach us the all-why. It does not let us cease to wonder what it is that we are doing, where it is that we are going”

“Oh, it is a hard and bitter thing to be a woman! And why-why? Is woman so foul a creature that she must needs be purged by this infinite pain?”

“I am always alone. I might mingle with people intimately every hour of my life—still I should be alone. Always alone-alone. Not even a God to worship.”

“I want a human being to love me. I have need of it. I am starving to death for lack of it.”

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

For this book being so short, it was hard to get through. Mary is always going on about how much of a genius she is, how miserable her life is, and how she waits for the devil to come and give her happiness. That's right, the devil. Reading this chronicle gets tedious after a while. I read it because it was referenced in Plain, Bad, Heroines, but I liked that book better.

[Roxan AlexanderArntson · Rating 3 out of 5]

What in the turn of the century teen angst did I just read? I read, and loved, Plain Bad Heroines. They reference this book throughout PBH, so I felt that I needed to come to the source. Turns out, I did not. Plain Bad Heroines took the best parts of this book for a much better book… Read that, not this.

[chia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve never wanted to hug a woman that existed centuries before I did.

I understand you and I love you.

[Laura Trout · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this was a book about Montana. It is a very small part. Mary MacLane wrote in GREAT detail about her personal feelings. Did not enjoy this at all. She was a very self centered person.

[Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

mary is a little wack and probably should’ve kept the diary private

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 3/4 stars