Seeing Mary Plain: A Life of Mary McCarthy

by Frances Kiernan

A revealing portrait of the dramatic life of writer and intellectual Mary McCarthy. 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".
20 pages of b/w photographs

Genres: Biography, Biography Memoir

846 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2000

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally finished this monster just as 2011 is ending. It was really way more than I needed to know about Mary McCarthy, but I'm glad I read it. It's good to read about a successful woman who was renowned for her sharp edges.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book, offering a chorus of opinions and views by McCarthy's friends, family and colleagues, former classmates, etc. Couldn't ask for a fuller portrait of the woman and her work. Her fascinating, multi-faceted personality amplified by Kiernan's methodological choice.

[Paul Montag · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seeing Mary Plain: A life of Mary McCarthy by Frances Kiernan clocks in at 749 pages. Typically, when faced with a book that big, the reader wonders if it couldn’t have been shortened. But in this case, upon turning the last page, the reader wouldn’t have minded more. Kiernan uses a heavy dose of quotations throughout her narrative from dozens of people. She withholds from making heavy-handed judgments herself but lets those who knew McCarthy give their opinion uninhibited. Kiernan’s guidance combined with the quotes strikes an even balance in giving a true account of a most unusual and fascinating person.
McCarthy grew up an orphan in Minneapolis after both her parents died in the flu epidemic of 1918. She was then rescued by relatives in Seattle, where she dabbled with the Catholicism of her ancestors at Annie Wright seminary before going out east to Vassar. We witness her ascent in the literary and intellectual community in New York. Struggling to pay the bills, she gets a job writing catalogue copy for a shady art dealer. She flirted with – before ultimately rejecting - communism, which was widespread in New York publishing of the 1930’s. She wrote scathing theatrical reviews for the Partisan Review, while befriending intellectuals such as Phillip Rahv, who became her lover, Dwight Macdonald, and later, Hannah Arendt, with whom she would develop a long-term correspondence.
She had two stints of teaching Literature at Bard college. She was married four times, the second to literary critic Edmund Wilson, who encouraged her to give creative writing a try at a time when she was working solely as a theater critic. Under his guidance she launched her writing career, which went on to include seven novels, eight short stories, and numerous essay collections, books on Florence and Venice, and reportage of Vietnam and Watergate. The chief charm as we witness McCarthy make her way as an outsider in the twentieth century realm of letters and ideas amidst a gallery of heavyweight intellectuals is her sheer audacity to be herself, her plain talking, and her cool, crisp directness.
She commonly celebrated underdogs, and took on unflinchingly heavyweights, like J.D. Salinger, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, and Marlon Brando. And though she was rebuked by the likes of Gore Vidal, Saul Bellow, Alfred Kazin, and other literary figures for her judgments, she remained undeterred. The world of letters comes off in these pages as including a fair amount of careerism by its practitioners, whereas Mary stayed true to her convictions, always, and prioritized truth, honesty, and directness above all else, even when her opinions injured others or herself.
Her sharp tongue sometimes got her into trouble, once resulting in a lawsuit for 2.2 million dollars for libel from playwright Lillian Hellman. Her stubborn allegiance to prioritizing the truth in both her life and in literature make her come off as something of an eccentric, if not even a crackpot. One can’t help but wonder what an honest talker like her would make of the world we live in today, when not every opinion is allowed a voice.
Some of her books are better than others, and some are topical, but what makes them all worth reading today is her strong, distinct voice and original turn of mind. She was extremely bright, direct, witty, and sharp. That sharpness and directness are what led some to consider her either intimidating or someone not to be taken seriously.
Frances Kiernan is worthy of thanks for putting together so likeably a chronicle of an outsider and, as her second husband Edmund Wilson thought, something of an outlaw, gallivanting her way through the intellectual realm of letters and ideas in New York and abroad, hosting memorable dinner parties along the way. It’s an absorbing read and includes a lot of good literary gossip. I always looked forward to picking it up.

[Anita · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic biography about a writer I've always found really interesting. She was an intelligent, passionate woman who managed to move in the most interesting of circumstances.

[Lelia · Rating 1 out of 5]

This biography started out on the wrong foot and never quite righted itself. Kiernan opens the preface with, “Most writers’ lives are sadly lacking in drama. The dullest of people, it turns out, write witty and intelligent books.” Having enjoyed numerous biographies of writers - none of which were dull unless the biographer was - I was astonished at this bold generalization. Then as I got into the biography itself, I was further astonished that rather than integrating quotations or information gleaned from people who knew Mary, from her letters, from her written work, Kiernan simply inserts block quotes. The result was at times tedious - not every contributor is a natural writer submitting polished prose, so their quotations are stiff, like a school report - and at times fascinating - I learned to look for the Hannah Arendt quotes and some of the racier descriptions from Edmund Wilson’s journals - and at times contradictory, as Kiernan included opposing viewpoints about some of the more controversial events in Mary’s life. In the preface, Kiernan writes “I have not tried for objectivity,” a surprising statement given the title of the book and the copious quotations offering well-rounded - sometimes conflicting - perspectives.

At first I read all of it - Kiernan’s prose and the quotations - but felt the jarring effect of an excess of minutia written by different voices. Then I read only Kieran’s prose (rather lifeless) and then I just started looking for quotations from the most interesting people - such as Elizabeth Hardwick and Hannah Arendt. All three approaches were unsatisfying and I concluded by the end of the book that I’d be better off reading more of McCarthy’s memoirs and the letters of Mary McCarthy and Hannah Arendt.

[Isabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obviously this is extremely long. But it’s the inclusion of the oral history component that accounts for the length, and the oral history is what really makes the book. It’s so interesting to hear people’s voices as they talk about Mary. You can really hear how much Jim West loved and missed her, how the Vassar girls were still so annoyed at her all those years later for putting them in The Group, the family resemblance in her brother Kevin’s voice, Hardwick’s affection for her despite all their history.

[Sandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

couldn't finish the book. It was just too filled with details, too confusing in the presentation, and I didn't get that interested in the character. I guess you have to be a real Mary McCarthy fan to get through the book.

[Alissa Wilkinson]

I love how this book is set up - I wish more biographies were like this.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seeing Mary Plain: A Life of Mary McCarthy (Paperback)
by Frances Kiernan