How I Grew Mary McCarthy

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 joband 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.