Mary McCarthy has made her living and reputation as a writer ever since her graduation from Vassar College in 1933, Phi Beta Kappa key in hand. Beginning with book reviews for Nation and the New Republic, she allied herself with New York's left-wing writers and thinkers, eventually becoming an editor and drama critic for the Partisan Review, writing a weekly column, "Theatre Chronicle." She staked out a radical position contrary to the New York critical establishment, and soon her direct, intelligent, and acerbic criticism set her apart from her contemporaries, earning her their grudging respect. Not until Edmund Wilson encouraged her did she attempt to write fiction. Her first novel, The Company She Keeps, published in 1942, was a semi-biographical collection of loosely related short stories. With this book, Mary McCarthy's reputation as an author was established. Throughout her long career, her literary energies have remained divided between the intellectual...