How I Grew - A Memoir of the Early Years

Author(s): Mary McCarthy

Literary biography

How I Grew explores the young adulthood of Mary McCarthy, one of the most outspoken and prominent intellectuals of the twentieth century. Focusing on eight formative years of her life--from high school in the Seattle area through college at Vassar--McCarthy reveals a girl by turns vulnerable, independent, dramatic, lonely, inquisitive, romantic, demonstrably bright, and uncommonly daring. In candid, often intimate detail, How I Grew recounts McCarthy's early attempts at writing; her relationships with teachers, family, and friends; a melodramatic flirtation with suicide; and experiences as dissimilar as her first job and her first seduction. A natural companion to the much-praised Memories of a Catholic Girlhood, this is a remarkable personal chronicle, an utterly convincing self-portrait, and a superb addition to the art of the autobiography.


Product Information

General Fields

  • : 9780140104035
  • : Penguin Books, Limited
  • : Penguin Books, Limited
  • : 0.211
  • : May 1989
  • : ---length:- '20'width:- '13'units:- Centimeters
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Mary McCarthy
  • : Paperback
  • : very good
  • : 278