McCarthy, Mary (Vol. 3) - McCarthy, Mary 1912–
McCarthy, Mary 1912–
American novelist, essayist, and short story writer, Ms. McCarthy is a topical writer, and her concerns encompass literary, social, and political affairs. She has been called America's only living woman of letters, and is best known for her novel, The Group. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 5-8, rev. ed.)
It is odd to notice how one's praise of Miss McCarthy tends to be expressed first in negative terms. How pleasant it is to find a woman writer who is not sentimental, whose sensibility is not lush, who does not explore with exquisite tenderness a heroine's first or second or fifteenth love affair. There are positive things to be said too: how much one admires her wit and her considered, self-conscious, yet fluidly elegant style, and the sensibility that is always present although not on parade. Yet one comes back always to those awkward questions of Mr. Penn Warren's about the standards that should be...
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