Mary McCarthy

Mary Therese McCarthy (June 21, 1912 – October 25, 1989) was an American author, critic, and political activist. Born in Seattle, Washington, to Roy Winfield McCarthy and his wife, the former Therese Preston, McCarthy was orphaned at the age of six when both her parents died in the great flu epidemic of 1918. She and her brothers, Kevin, Preston, and Sheridan were raised in very unhappy circumstances by her Catholic father's parents in Minneapoli... more

Mary Therese McCarthy (June 21, 1912 – October 25, 1989) was an American author, critic, and political activist. Born in Seattle, Washington, to Roy Winfield McCarthy and his wife, the former Therese Preston, McCarthy was orphaned at the age of six when both her parents died in the great flu epidemic of 1918. She and her brothers, Kevin, Preston, and Sheridan were raised in very unhappy circumstances by her Catholic father's parents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, under the direct care of an uncle and aunt she remembered for harsh treatment and abuse. When the situation became intolerable, she was taken in by her maternal grandparents in Seattle, Augusta Morganstern, who was Jewish, and Harold Preston, a prominent attorney and co-founder of the law firm Preston Gates & Ellis, who was an Episcopalian. (Her brothers were sent to boarding school.) McCarthy credited her grandfather, who helped draft one of the nation's first Workmen's Compensation Acts, with helping form her liberal views.... less