Twenty-Four Ways of Looking at Mary McCarthy

This collection of essays by a diverse group of young academics, established critics, and well-known writers strikes an intriguing balance between scholarship and reminiscence. The only full-length book on Mary McCarthy that is not a biography, this volume contains discussions of McCarthy as a member of the New York intelligentsia, her search for a just and ethical political philosophy, and the paradox of her views on feminism. The contributors include McCarthy biographers Carol Brightman, Carol Gelderman, and Fran Kiernan; novelists Thomas Flanagan, Maureen Howard, and Thomas Mallon; Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Frances Fitzgerald; and critics Morris Dickstein and Katie Roiphe. The book concludes with a moving reminiscence by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

EVE STWERTKA was a student of Mary McCarthy's at Bard College, in the late 1940s. She worked as editorial assistant on Partisan Review. Currently she is professor emerita from SUNY Farmingdale, where she taught English and held the position of Asociate Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. Stwertka writes non-fiction books for children and young adults. She is a trustee of the Mary McCarthy Literary Trust.

MARGO VISCUSI worked for eight years as secretary to Mary McCarthy in Paris and is now a trustee of the Mary McCarthy Literary Trust. She has been a writer, editor, and director of communications for three major New York foundations and at UNESCO in Paris. Viscusi has held the positions of Director of Publications at Hunter College and Executive Assistant to the President of the New York Public Library. She is a founder and current president of Poets House in New York and a director of the Corporation of Yaddo.