Musings on Mary McCarthy

Intellectual Memoirs
New York 1936-1938
by Mary McCarthy
Harcourt Brace and Company,1992, 134 pages

Just who did Mary McCarthy sleep with and why? The question needs to be asked, evidently, because it warranted writing a book. Actually, it has probably given McCarthy more than enough to write about throughout the years.

For writers of the female persuasion, McCarthy offers a glimmer of hope. She refuses to castrate her breasts and vagina to the cause of being taken seriously. After all, how many of us have been slammed for being “too female” in our own work.

I’ll never forget the night I went out with a group of writers, only to have one of the wives tell me that my writing was too girlish. What made the moment fascinating, in hindsight, was that she very obviously chose her intellect over her femininity. I recognized it because I’ve done the same thing. And so here we both were, two women who couldn’t come to grips with the idea of having both a vagina and a mind. And our only recourse was to “out-man” each other. She slammed me for being “too girlish” and therefore, “not intellectual enough.” I could slam her (in my own thoughts) for living her intellectual life vicariously through her husband.

After leaving the event, I couldn’t remember her name. But I could never forget our unfortunate connection in that moment.

This is what I like about Mary McCarthy. She was a writer who was comfortable with her gender, sexuality and intellect. This book covers three years of her life, 1936-1938. Her relationships with Philip Rahv and Edmund Wilson are touched upon, along with her philosophical affinity with Trotsky. The last chapter, her marriage to Wilson, is the shortest. Subsequently, it feels incomplete. Indeed, the ending gives the impression that McCarthy is in an irreconcilable pickle. Drunk and crazed on their wedding night, Wilson believes her brothers are part of Stalin’s secret police force. He accuses her of being in cahoots with them.

“That badly injured marriage lasted seven more years, though it is true that it never recovered.”

The last thought from this chapter begs for another. Unfortunately, it will never be finished.

Comments

[Scott Walters]

I wrote much of my dissertation on Lionel Trilling (Trilling's influence on Robert Brustein), so I had the pleasure of getting acquainted with the Partisan Review writers. My interests went more toward Rahv, McDonald, Barzun, and Hook -- perhaps, as you might point out, because of their decided lack of a vagina (Trilling's seeming disregard for his wife, Diana's, intellectual pursuits is embarrassing, to say the least). Anyway, you post has sent me to the library. Thanks!

[Laura]

I love the Partisans Review folks. Perhaps I'll write more and then we can compare notes. Or you write some and I'll write some. Or maybe you can write and I'll just listen. :)