Friday, September 02, 2005
The Literary Dick (as in Private Detective)
welcomes questions about literary mysteries and scandals, which should be sent to: woodyswoody@hotmail.com. The Literary Dick (as in Private Detective) is published by Jonathanames.com. Ames, our mentor at this website, has an excellent new book out called, Wake Up, Sir! and an even newer book out (he is the editor) called Sexual Metamorphosis: An Anthology of Transsexual Memoirs.
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On Mary McCarthy's Group
Question: Hi Literary Dick,
I have another question for you. I just finished reading Mary McCarthy's "The Group," and I know that all the characters are supposed to be very thinly veiled portraits of real friends, lovers, acquaintances. I recognize the Harald Petersen character as her first husband, Harold Johnsrud, which, I suppose, would make Mary herself at
least partly Kay (which is funny, in a slightly self-aggrandizing way, given Kay's beautiful, overflowing funeral at the end). I also had the thought that Elizabeth Bishop (who, it is said, never forgave McCarthy for "The Group"-- though it seems Bishop really never liked McCarthy anyway) could be the model for Lakey, who goes off to Europe and comes home a Lesbian. Bishop also traveled a lot and also was a lesbian and in a marriage-like relationship with a foreign aristocrat. (Which made me wonder, was Bishop as pretty and frightening while she
was at Vassar as Lakey is?) But who are the other characters supposed to be? The women, especially, but also some of the men-- the husbands and lovers? I've been looking for gossip on the Internet, but to no avail.
Best,
Joanna
P.S. Thank you for answering my questions about every gay literary rumor I've ever heard.
P.P.S. I noticed you answered a question some one else had about the pencil penis she once encountered. McCarthy writes about said appendage in the follow-up to the "Memories of a Catholic Girlhood," "Intellectual Memories," which she was working on when she died and which was, I believe, published posthumously.
Answer: The best book I’ve found on this subject is Carol Brightman’s Mary McCarthy and Her World. (New York, Clarkson Potter Publishers, 1992). As Brightman notes, there’s been lots of speculation about who’s who in The Group, a book Norman Mailer was apparently very grumpy about. Brightman cites a 1964 article by Shelia Tobias, an admirable literary detective, who writes in ‘“The Group” on Mary McCarthy’:
“I thought it would be interesting to find out what The Group thought of Mary McCarthy and her book. […] I started out, of course, by rereading the novel carefully. Then I began looking hard at the pictures of the graduates in the Class of 1933’s yearbook. Since The Group, by Miss McCarthy’s testimony, was one of the most prominent on campus, I made note of all the “bests” the “most likelies,” the “most actives,” the editors, actresses, class officials and the grinds.” (New York: The Sunday Herald Tribune Magazine January 5, 1964 p. 6)
“It’s not a novel for me […] but a puzzle,” said one member of The Group to Tobias, who does not name names in her article.
Brightman does name names. Below is information culled from her book:
Real Person /Fake Person (page referenced in Blightman’s book)
Margaret Miller and Nathalie Swan/Lakey (78, 481)
Harol Johnsrud/Harald Petersen (83)
Dorothy Newton/Dottie (though defloration is imagined) (92)
Frani Blough/ Helena Davison (92)
Mrs. Blough /Mrs. Davison (92)
Eunice Clark Jessup/ Norine Schmittlapp (92, I think)
Bill Mangold/ Polly Andrew’s lover, Gus LeRoy (127)
Kay McLean (physical) McMarthy (her experiences)/Kay (481)
Helen Kelly’s butler, Finch/Pokey Prothero’s butler, Hatton (482)
Libby MacAusland/Elizabeth McAusland (482)
Selden Rodman/Norine’s husband, Putman (482)
(I may have reversed some of the Real and Fake people by mistake; Tobias says Polly Andrews is “entirely fictional.” (9))
So nobody in The Group became, as far as I know, mega famous. Selden Rodman apparently edited something called Common Sense.
A few words about Elizabeth Bishop: Joanna’s conjecture that Bishop was the model for Lakey was apparently shared by the poet. McCarthy, according to Brightman, wrote to Bishop to clarify the issue, but the letter reached her her deathday, and so went unread. In all of the pictures I’ve seen of Bishop she is quite attractive so I think it unlikely she was not fetching in her college days.
welcomes questions about literary mysteries and scandals, which should be sent to: woodyswoody@hotmail.com. The Literary Dick (as in Private Detective) is published by Jonathanames.com. Ames, our mentor at this website, has an excellent new book out called, Wake Up, Sir! and an even newer book out (he is the editor) called Sexual Metamorphosis: An Anthology of Transsexual Memoirs.
---------------------------------------------
On Mary McCarthy's Group
Question: Hi Literary Dick,
I have another question for you. I just finished reading Mary McCarthy's "The Group," and I know that all the characters are supposed to be very thinly veiled portraits of real friends, lovers, acquaintances. I recognize the Harald Petersen character as her first husband, Harold Johnsrud, which, I suppose, would make Mary herself at
least partly Kay (which is funny, in a slightly self-aggrandizing way, given Kay's beautiful, overflowing funeral at the end). I also had the thought that Elizabeth Bishop (who, it is said, never forgave McCarthy for "The Group"-- though it seems Bishop really never liked McCarthy anyway) could be the model for Lakey, who goes off to Europe and comes home a Lesbian. Bishop also traveled a lot and also was a lesbian and in a marriage-like relationship with a foreign aristocrat. (Which made me wonder, was Bishop as pretty and frightening while she
was at Vassar as Lakey is?) But who are the other characters supposed to be? The women, especially, but also some of the men-- the husbands and lovers? I've been looking for gossip on the Internet, but to no avail.
Best,
Joanna
P.S. Thank you for answering my questions about every gay literary rumor I've ever heard.
P.P.S. I noticed you answered a question some one else had about the pencil penis she once encountered. McCarthy writes about said appendage in the follow-up to the "Memories of a Catholic Girlhood," "Intellectual Memories," which she was working on when she died and which was, I believe, published posthumously.
Answer: The best book I’ve found on this subject is Carol Brightman’s Mary McCarthy and Her World. (New York, Clarkson Potter Publishers, 1992). As Brightman notes, there’s been lots of speculation about who’s who in The Group, a book Norman Mailer was apparently very grumpy about. Brightman cites a 1964 article by Shelia Tobias, an admirable literary detective, who writes in ‘“The Group” on Mary McCarthy’:
“I thought it would be interesting to find out what The Group thought of Mary McCarthy and her book. […] I started out, of course, by rereading the novel carefully. Then I began looking hard at the pictures of the graduates in the Class of 1933’s yearbook. Since The Group, by Miss McCarthy’s testimony, was one of the most prominent on campus, I made note of all the “bests” the “most likelies,” the “most actives,” the editors, actresses, class officials and the grinds.” (New York: The Sunday Herald Tribune Magazine January 5, 1964 p. 6)
“It’s not a novel for me […] but a puzzle,” said one member of The Group to Tobias, who does not name names in her article.
Brightman does name names. Below is information culled from her book:
Real Person /Fake Person (page referenced in Blightman’s book)
Margaret Miller and Nathalie Swan/Lakey (78, 481)
Harol Johnsrud/Harald Petersen (83)
Dorothy Newton/Dottie (though defloration is imagined) (92)
Frani Blough/ Helena Davison (92)
Mrs. Blough /Mrs. Davison (92)
Eunice Clark Jessup/ Norine Schmittlapp (92, I think)
Bill Mangold/ Polly Andrew’s lover, Gus LeRoy (127)
Kay McLean (physical) McMarthy (her experiences)/Kay (481)
Helen Kelly’s butler, Finch/Pokey Prothero’s butler, Hatton (482)
Libby MacAusland/Elizabeth McAusland (482)
Selden Rodman/Norine’s husband, Putman (482)
(I may have reversed some of the Real and Fake people by mistake; Tobias says Polly Andrews is “entirely fictional.” (9))
So nobody in The Group became, as far as I know, mega famous. Selden Rodman apparently edited something called Common Sense.
A few words about Elizabeth Bishop: Joanna’s conjecture that Bishop was the model for Lakey was apparently shared by the poet. McCarthy, according to Brightman, wrote to Bishop to clarify the issue, but the letter reached her her deathday, and so went unread. In all of the pictures I’ve seen of Bishop she is quite attractive so I think it unlikely she was not fetching in her college days.
