Mary McCarthy

[David]

I don't recommend any of McCarthy's fiction. I find it tiresome & doctrinaire.

Instead, pick up a used copy of her THEATRE CHRONICLES. She is as sharp & funny & insightful as any theater critic in America -- George Jean Nathan's own daughter. This book covers her essays from 1937 to 1962, including her famous essays on OUR TOWN & A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. What a great, sassy gal she was.

She was married to Philip Rahv at first, & then she married one of my intellectual heroes, Edmund Wilson. I recommend Edmund Wilson's A LITERARY CHRONICLE: 1920-1950. This one contains shortish pieces on American literature & European literature, including his famous views on detective fiction, on Emily Post, & on Dos Passos.

These are both good books to keep on or near the toilet, especially if you're running low on Will Short crossword puzzles.

Edmund Wilson & Mary McCarthy -- the greatest polemical couple of all time.