How I Grew [Paperback]

Mary McCarthy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2004

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this autobiographical account of McCarthy's intellectual and emotional development, we meet her as a lonely, frightened 13-year-old and leave her as a sophisticated Vassar graduate, foolishly married at age 21 to a man she doesn't love. This reminiscence will appeal to admirers of her Memories of a Catholic Girlhood. Such universal experiences as an adolescent girl's painful awakening to sex, her first love affair, her discovery of books and ideas involve the reader because of the author's near-photographic memory, her relentless candor and graceful style. Brought up by grandparents, McCarthy, "a bright wild girl from Seattle," at 17 was put off by Vassar's "cleverness," but she notes that the school left its stamp on her, making her "brittle, smart and a little empty." Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

McCarthy, an important American writer for over 30 years, here offers a fascinating account of her life from ages 13 to 21. In her lively style she relates details of those early yearsthe influences, triumphs, losses, and friends, for friendship, she states, "is essential to intellectuals." Of particular interest is the discussion of her extensive readingsome of it assigned but much pursued on her own. In fact, her purpose in writing this volume is largely to "trace the onset of intellectual interests" that occurred when she was 13, the year she was "born as a mind." (Her 1957 Memories of a Catholic Girlhood approaches her early life from a different perspective.) A candid writer, McCarthy ends this volume with her marriage at 21 to a man she did not love, making us eager to follow her story further in the next installment. Nancy R. Ives, State Univ. of New York at Geneseo
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (March 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156027887
• ISBN-13: 978-0156027885
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,012,370 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Portrait of an Amazing Woman as a Young Girl, August 15, 2001

By 

Andrei Sizov (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How I Grew (Paperback)

Each time I reread "How I Grew" I enjoy it more. Mary McCarthy paints a picture of herself coming of age intellectually , alongside engaging and often hilarious descriptions of the people she meets in these formative years between age 13 and 21, the town she grows up in (Seattle), and her early experiences at Vassar. What I love most is her chronicle of the most important and influential books and teachers in her life at this time, and how they shaped and sharpened her already apparent keen intelligence. Witty, self-deprecating, acid-tongued, insightful, and admittedly selective in her memories, in this book Mary McCarthy gives us some clues as to how a young girl with a formidable intellect grew into one of America's literary giants.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Read Memories of a Catholic Girlhood instead, June 23, 2005

By 

Byron the Bulb - See all my reviews

This review is from: How I Grew (Hardcover)

I love most of Mary McCarthy, but in my opinion, this is her weakest book. It covers basically the same territory as Memories of a Catholic Girlhood, which she wrote in the 1950s. Here, however, there's little trace of her signature, tightly-wrought style. Instead, the style is baggy, with convoluted sentences, chatty asides, digressions within digressions, and endless lists of books she read, names of friends, etc. As a result, I often lost track of the basic story - which, after all, was the exact same story she had already told in Memories of a Catholic Girlhood. I'm rather confused as to why McCarthy wrote this book at all. Given that she had already written a detailed memoir of her formative years, why not just skip ahead to the mid-1930s, the subject of her unfinished "Intellectual Memoirs"?

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My grandmother was Czerna Wilson, grandfather Carl Wilson, January 12, 2009

By 

MaryAnn F. Kohl "author, educator" (Bellingham, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How I Grew (Paperback)

My grandmother is the "fabled Czerna Wilson" in this book. I could offer some facts that are unknown to the author of this book, if someone is interested.