With Rosamond Bernier, Paula Deitz, Frances FitzGerald, Laura Furman, Molly Haskell, Diane Johnson, Frances Kiernan, Jane Kramer, Thomas Mallon, Ron Patkus, Robert Pounder, Robert Silvers, Eve Stwertka, Margo Viscusi, and Sophia Wilson
The event is fully registered, and the waitlist is now closed. With any questions about existing registrations, please contact the Events Office at 212.288.6900 x230.
In 1963, Mary McCarthy published one of the most revolutionary and scandalous novels of that scandalous, revolutionary decade—The Group. Based loosely on her own experiences at and after Vassar College, the book follows eight women through the triumphs and struggles universal to the time and unique to educated, affluent women in a male-dominated world.
In this unique two-hour event, literary stars who knew or worked with McCarthy share their insights into this groundbreaking book and its author.
Rosamond Bernier, celebrated lecturer on the arts, founding editor with her former husband of L’Oeil,and author of Some of My Lives, first got to know Mary McCarthy when she hired her to write the introduction for Venice Observed and went on to become a close friend in Paris.
Paula Deitz, editor of the Hudson Review and author of Of Gardens, will speak about taking part in McCarthy’s French reading group in Castine, Maine.
Frances FitzGerald, author of Fire in the Lake and Cities on a Hill, was a longtime friend of McCarthy’s and will particularly address her domestic life in Maine.
Laura Furman, author of The Mother Who Stayed, series editor of The O. Henry Prize Stories, and professor emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin, will speak about teaching McCarthy’s Memories of a Catholic Girlhood.
Molly Haskell, author of Frankly, My Dear and My Brother My Sister, will speak about The Group and its film adaptation by Sidney Lumet.
Diane Johnson, author of Le Divorce, Lesser Lives, and the new memoir Flyover Lives, became good friends with McCarthy in Paris in the late 1970s.
Frances Kiernan, co-host, is the author of Seeing Mary Plain: A Life of Mary McCarthy and The Last Mrs. Astor: A New York Story. She is a former editor at the New Yorker.
Jane Kramer, whose books include Europeans and The Politics of Memory, has written the Letter from Europefor the New Yorker since 1981. She first met Mary McCarthy in the 1960s, and their friendship continued through the many years that they were neighbors in Paris.
Thomas Mallon, author of Watergate and Henry and Clara and frequent contributor to the New Yorker and the New York Times Book Review, attributes much of his career to the inspiration and encouragement McCarthy provided.
Ron Patkus, Associate Director of the Libraries for Special Collections and Adjunct Associate Professor of History at Vassar, will discuss the McCarthy papers in Vassar’s collection.
Robert Pounder, co-host, is Professor Emeritus of Classics at Vassar and a former assistant to its President. He met McCarthy when she returned as the college’s first distinguished visitor in 1982.
Robert Silvers is the editor of the New York Review of Books and was a longtime friend of McCarthy’s.
Eve Stwertka was Mary McCarthy’s student at Bard College, worked as editorial assistant on Partisan Review and served as McCarthy’s literary trustee for over two decades. She will speak about her earliest memories of her friend and mentor.
Margo Viscusi, President Emerita of Poets House, was McCarthy’s secretary for eight years in Paris and, with Eve Stwertka, her literary executor from 1991 to 2012. She will describe being interviewed for a job by the “formidable” writer.
Sophia Wilson, co-host, is McCarthy’s granddaughter and current literary executor. She will speak of her early memories of her grandmother and the process of reissuing her out-of-print books through Open Road Integrated Media.
A prior event celebrating the Mary McCarthy centennial was held at the American Library in Paris on October 16, 2012. We thank Paula Deitz and Frances Kiernan for their organization of this event.
