Mary McCarthy

by Mary McCarthy

102.14 GPU] Officers of the State Political Directorate, an early Soviet secret-police organization, 1922–34.

  102.24 the Dauphin, Bonnie Prince Charlie] Two royal lost causes: Louis XVII of France (1785–1795), the youngest son of the deposed Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, would have assumed the French crown in 1793; during the early nineteenth century a number of men challenged the idea that he had ever died and themselves claimed to be “the lost dauphin.” Charles Edward Stuart, “Bonnie Prince Charlie” (1720–1788), was the Young Pretender to the British throne who led the unsuccessful Jacobite uprising in 1745.

  102.24–25 Debs and now Trotsky] Two socialist lost causes: Eugene V. Debs (1855–1926) was the Socialist Party of America’s candidate in five presidential elections. In her essay “My Confession” (1953) McCarthy recounts how Leon Trotsky (1879–1940), Soviet revolutionary eventually murdered by Stalin’s agents, became—almost accidentally—an object of her enduring political admiration.

  105.19 The Tsar to Lenin] American documentary film (1937) about the Russian Revolution that was admiring of Trotsky and denounced by American Stalinists during the Moscow Trials. It was narrated by Max Eastman (1883–1969), who had edited the socialist magazine The New Masses (1913–18). In her Intellectual Memoirs (1992) McCarthy recalls being at a party with Eastman during her affair with the critic Philip Rahv. “This white-haired spellbinder, the son of preachers from Canandaigua, New York, was handsome, tall, all his life a fascinator of women. His film on the Russian Revolution, Tsar to Lenin, was just being shown. In sum, all I remember is what I would like to forget: having had a lot of drinks, sitting on Max Eastman’s lap; out of a corner of memory’s eye, I see Philip’s face. The next morning he was still very angry with me. I had an awful hangover and had to stay home from work for two whole days.”

  108.9 Wesley Barry] Child actor (1907–1994) in American silent movies.

  108.10 Our Gang comedies] Popular series of short movies featuring mischievous children, created by Hal Roach and produced from 1922 to 1944.

  108.21 Bones] Short for “Skull and Bones,” elite secret society for Yale University undergraduates founded in 1832.

  108.22–23 Foster and Ford and the Bonus Marchers and the Scottsboro Boys] William Z. Foster (1881–1961) was a labor organizer and Stalinist hardliner within the American Communist Party; James W. Ford (1893–1957), African American vice-presidential candidate of the American Communist Party in three elections; the Bonus March was a massive extended protest in Washington, D.C., in the Depression year of 1932, during which veterans of World War I demanded a bonus payment for their service; the Scottsboro Boys—African Americans charged with raping two white women and sentenced to death by an all-white jury in Alabama—were an important civil-rights cause of the 1930s.

  108.24 Das Kapital] Karl Marx’s three-volume theoretical critique of capitalism, published from 1867 to 1894, edited and completed by Friedrich Engels.

  110.20 out of Shef] The Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University.

  110.39 Lovestoneites] Jay Lovestone (1897–1990) was general secretary of the American Communist Party from 1927 until 1929, when he was expelled from the party on Stalin’s orders. From 1929 to 1941 Lovestone led a dissident Communist group known by a variety of names, including Communist Party (Opposition).

  111.2 a Farmer-Labor party] Democratic-Socialist political party that achieved long-term success in Minnesota beginning in 1918, and short-lived prominence as a national organization during the 1920s. In 1944 it merged with the Minnesota Democratic Party.

  111.36–37 the Eli bulldog] Mascot of the Yale University football team.

  113.6 Veblen] Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929), American economic sociologist; author of The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) and inventor of the concept of “conspicuous consumption.”

  113.17 Browder] Earl Russell Browder (1891–1973), general secretary of the U.S. Communist Party, 1930–45, and its 1936 and 1940 candidate for president.

  113.22 Rainbow Room] Restaurant with revolving dance floor at the top of 30 Rockefeller Center.

  113.30–31 Kautsky] Karl Johann Kautsky (1854–1938), German Marxist theoretician who denounced Lenin and the Bolsheviks for their dictatorial repressions.

  114.6 Jack Reed] John Reed (1887–1920), American journalist whose book Ten Days That Shook the World chronicled his witness of the October 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.

  115.33–35 the AAA, . . . the hundred White Guards] The Agricultural Adjustment Act (1933) was an early New Deal measure regulating farm production; in 1937 President Roosevelt unsuccessfully attempted to increase the number of justices on the Supreme Court, which had struck down portions of his New Deal program; Sergey Kirov (1886–1934), a Politburo member and head of the Soviet Communist Party in Leningrad, was assassinated, perhaps at the direction of Stalin; the White Guards, the military part of the White movement that had opposed the Bolshevik Revolution, continued to offer sporadic resistance to the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s.

  117.8 Okhrana] The Russian secret police during the last decades of tsarist rule.

  118.13–14 Dos Passos] The American novelist John Dos Passos (1896–1970) and his wife, Katy, were friends of Edmund Wilson and Mary McCarthy on Cape Cod. As a teenager in the late 1920s, McCarthy was very taken with Dos Passos’s The 42nd Parallel. In 1984, she recalled: “Like a Japanese flower dropped into a glass of water, my political person unfolded, magically, from Dos Passos, though he would have been saddened in later years to hear what his energy, enthusiasm, and sheer unwary talent had brought about.” By the end of his life Dos Passos had embraced conservatism and become a contributor to William F. Buckley’s National Review.

  118.37 Consumer’s Union] Founded in 1936, Consumers Union was an advocacy group for American purchasers, and until 2012 the publisher of Consumer Reports.

  120.12 the Hegelian thesis] The popular notion of dialectic, in which a thesis and its antithesis are resolved into a synthesis.

  120.15 Young and Rubicam] Prominent advertising agency on Madison Avenue in New York City.

  125.3 Dubinsky? Sidney Hillman?] American labor leaders generally supportive of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Democratic Party. David Dubinsky (1892–1982), president of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union, 1932–66; Sidney Hillman (1887–1946), president of Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Roosevelt’s reputedly telling the Democratic national chairman to “Clear it with Sidney,” when he prepared to drop Henry A. Wallace for Harry Truman as his vice-presidential running mate in 1944, became a byword for Hillman’s influence on the President.

  128.12–13 “The coward dies . . . one.”] Ernest Hemingway’s rendition, in A Farewell to Arms (1929), of Julius Caesar, II.ii.32–33.

  129.6 that Shef dance] See note 110.20.

  134.25 Electra] In Greek mythology, Electra and her brother Orestes together plotted revenge for the murder of their father Agamemnon by their mother Clytemnestra and their stepfather Aegisthus.

  135.21–22 R. W. Sears or Frank Woolworth] Richard Warren Sears (1863–1914), American chain store magnate and cofounder of Sears, Roebuck and Co.; Frank Winfield Woolworth (1852–1919), founder of the Woolworth five-and-dime stores.

  136.33 Landon . . . Lemke . . . Browder] Presidential candidates in 1936. For Alfred M. Landon, see note 61.10–12. William Frederick Lemke (1878–1950) represented North Dakota in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1933–41, and in 1936 was the presidential candidate of the Union Party, whose major supporters included such extreme right-wing opponents of Roosevelt as Father Charles Coughlin, the “radio priest,” and Gerald L. K. Smith, who later founded the America First Party in 1943. For Earl Russell Browder, see note 113.17.

  136.39 Norman Thomas] See note 61.21.

  137.20 De Leon] Daniel De Leon (1852–1914), American socialist leader, labor organizer, and newspaper editor.

  139.10 Romm and Piatakov and the GPU agent,
Holtzman?] All three offered testimony damaging to Trotsky at the Moscow Trials and were subsequently executed.

  141.5–6 Revere Beach] Large public beach several miles north of Boston.

  141.37–38 the Hotel Bristol . . . landing field at Oslo] Sites of supposed anti-Stalinist conspiracy activities involving Trotsky.

  142.23–24 Leibowitz . . . Scottsboro case] Samuel Leibowitz (1893–1978), a leading New York criminal defense attorney, was engaged by International Labor Defense, a Communist legal group, to represent the Scottsboro Boys when they were retried in Decatur, Alabama, in 1933 (see also note 108.22–23).

  144.30 subjective correlative] A more personal version—involving, as Jim believes, one’s “own experience and psychology”—of T. S. Eliot’s famous idea of the “objective correlative,” stated in his essay “Hamlet and His Problems” (1919): “The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an ‘objective correlative’; in other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked.”

  145.37 Silone] Ignazio Silone (1900–1978), pseudonym of Secondo Tranquilli, Italian socialist writer and politician who stood in opposition to both Mussolini’s regime and Stalinism. His novels include Bread and Wine (1936).

  146.32 silicosis sufferers] A congressional hearing in January and February 1936 found that 476 miners died as a result of silica poisoning (silicosis) at the Hawk’s Nest Tunnel construction project in West Virginia from 1930 to 1935.

  146.38 Jumble Shop] Manhattan restaurant on Waverly Place.

  150.29–30 his Socony or his Shell castle] Gas stations.

  152.18 no Zetkin, no Luxemburg] Clara Zetkin (1857–1933), German Marxist and feminist; Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919), Polish-German Marxist revolutionary.

  156.19 Destiny] McCarthy’s fictional version of Fortune, Henry Luce’s sumptuous business magazine, for which her friend and Partisan Review colleague Dwight Macdonald (1906–1982) worked in the early and mid-1930s.

  160.12 pro-Willkie] Wendell Willkie (1892–1944), internationalist-minded business executive, became the dark horse Republican nominee for president in 1940. He lost to the incumbent, Franklin D. Roosevelt, then running for his third term.

  163.15–16 George S. Kaufman, Helen Hayes] Kaufman, witty American dramatist (1889–1961); Hayes, American actress (1900–1993), often called “The First Lady of the American Theatre,” but pronounced by McCarthy “our worst actress, famous as such in the profession.”

  164.28 Myra Hess] English pianist (1890–1965).

  166.29 The Last Days of Pompeii, A Cask of Amontillado] The Last Days of Pompeii (1834), historical novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton; “The Cask of Amontillado,” short story (1846) by Edgar Allan Poe.

  166.30–31 the giant . . . under Aetna] In Greek mythology, Enceladus, one of the giants who battled the Olympian gods, is supposed to be buried beneath Mt. Etna; the tremors of the volcano were said to be caused by his rolling from side to side.

  166.31 Matthew Arnold, Empedocles] The fifth-century B.C.E. Greek philosopher Empedocles, subject of Matthew Arnold’s poem “Empedocles on Etna,” is thought to have killed himself by jumping into the volcano.

  166.31–32 And Karl Marx: “weighs like an Alp”] Karl Marx wrote in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon (1852): “The tradition of all dead generations weighs like an Alp on the brains of the living.”

  168.22 Vincent Astor’s remodeled tenements] Vincent Astor (1891–1959), philanthropic heir to the Astor fortune, reversed the family tradition of slumlordism and contributed to the growth of affordable housing in New York City.

  168.39–40 Maestius lacrimis Simonideis] Catullus’s poem 38, pleading with Cornificius, Roman author of a treatise on rhetoric, for some consoling verses “sadder than the tears of Simonideus” (referring to the Greek poet Simonides).

  169.24 Swedish modern and Paul Klee] The clean lines of Swedish furniture enjoyed a reputation for progressive tastefulness in the 1930s; Paul Klee (1879–1940), Swiss-German modernist painter.

  170.7–8 Bonwit Teller] High-end New York City department store, located during the 1930s and 1940s at Fifth Avenue and 56th Street.

  171.20 Elsie Dinsmore] Upstanding heroine of a children’s book series by Martha Finley (1828–1909), published from 1867 to 1905.

  171.25 Lizzie Borden and her ax] Though acquitted by a jury, Lizzie Borden (1869–1927) is widely believed to have murdered her father and stepmother inside their home in Fall River, Massachusetts, during the summer of 1892. Over the years the case has inspired a ballet, an opera, and a famous piece of doggerel (“Lizzie Borden took an ax . . .”).

  171.29 Cardinal Wiseman] Nicholas Wiseman (1802–1865), first archbishop of Westminster, 1850–65, author of the novel Fabiola (1854), a rejoinder to Charles Kingsley’s anti-Catholic Hypatia (1853).

  173.15–17 the Sacred Heart, Veronica’s veil . . . Saint Cecilia] The Sacred Heart, the heart of Jesus, typically depicted with a flame and crown of thorns, and pierced by a lance; Veronica’s veil, an object of special devotion in the Roman Catholic Church. Jesus is thought to have left an image of himself on the veil with which Veronica mopped his face as he carried his cross to Calvary. Cecilia, the patron saint of music, thought to have been martyred in the second or third century C.E., sang to God “in her heart” while the musicians at her wedding played their instruments.

  175.18 Know-Nothing pamphlets] The anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic Know-Nothing movement operated as the American Party in elections just prior to the Civil War.

  176.15 moiré] Rippled silk.

  177.5 Al Smith] Alfred E. Smith (1873–1944), Irish-Catholic governor of New York, 1919–20 and 1923–28, and Democratic candidate for president in 1928. He was defeated by Herbert Hoover.

  178.6–7 Diane de Poitiers, Ninon, or Margaret of Navarre] Diane de Poitiers (1499–1566), influential, well-educated mistress of Henry II of France; Anne de Lenclos (1620–1705), known as Ninon de Lenclos, French wit, courtesan, and philosophical writer; Marguerite de Navarre (1492–1549), wife of Henry II of Navarre and sister of France’s Francis I, was a poet, playwright, and patron of the arts.

  178.9 The Queen’s Necklace] Romantic historical novel (1849–50) by Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870), sympathetic to Marie Antoinette and based on a scandal in which she was implicated in a plot to cheat the crown jewelers.

  180.17–18 Dead End Kid] Any of several young delinquent characters in American dramatist Sidney Kingsley’s 1935 play Dead End; in subsequent Hollywood movies the characters evolved into comic rascals.

  185.7–8 “By their fruits ye shall know them,”] Cf. Matthew 7:20.

  186.38 Brill] Abraham Arden Brill (1874–1948), Austrian American psychoanalyst who translated Freud into English and founded the New York Psychoanalytic Society.

  187.4 “Physician, heal thyself.”] Proverb quoted in Luke 4:23.

  187.12 the mark of Cain] Cf. Genesis 4:9–15.

  187.39–40 the Managerial Revolution, Van Wyck Brooks, Lewis Mumford] The “managerial revolution” was the subject of a 1941 book by James Burnham (1905–1987), a Trotskyist turned conservative, who saw managers replacing owners as the crucial players in American corporations. Brooks (1886–1963) was an American literary critic; Mumford (1895–1990), a historian, philosopher, and city planner.

  188.23–24 Mesmer and then Cagliostro] Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815), theorist of “animal magnetism,” from which hypnosis was claimed to derive; Alessandro Cagliostro was the alias of Giuseppe Balsamo (1743–1795), an adventurous figure of necromancy and the occultist involved in the affair of Marie Antoinette’s diamond necklace (see also note 178.9).

  189.38 Sacred Heart] See note 173.15–17.

  189.38–39 Saint Sebastian] Late third-century Christian martyr, executed by the E
mperor Diocletian; often depicted as tied to a tree and shot with arrows.

  192.19 false Florimel] A living waxen figure of the real and beautiful Florimell, created by a witch in Book 3 of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene (1590–96), when the real Florimell refuses the advances of the witch’s son.

  199.1–2 O di . . . pietate mea.] The final line of Catullus’s poem 76: O Gods, render this to me in return for my devotion.

  THE OASIS

  204.19–20 Socony Automobile Guide] The Standard Oil Company of New York (Socony) was a precursor and component of today’s ExxonMobil.

  204.27–28 the birthplace of Stephen A. Douglas.] Douglas (1813–1861), the “Little Giant” of antebellum American politics, represented Illinois in the House of Representatives, 1843–47, and in the Senate, 1847–61, and was Abraham Lincoln’s opponent in their legendary series of debates during 1858. He was born in Brandon, Vermont.

  206.3 Prodigal Son’s brother] Cf. Luke 15:11–32.

  208.1–2 the bishop’s candlesticks] An episode involving trust and generosity shown toward the thief Jean Valjean in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables (1862), later adapted into a popular stage play by the Scottish dramatist and actor Norman McKinnel (1870–1932).

  208.19–20 a veteran of the Spanish war and of Vichy’s prisons] Antifascist sympathies would have made him a supporter of the Spanish Republic against the forces of Francisco Franco (see note 80.25–26) as well as an opponent of the collaborationist Vichy regime following the Nazi conquest of France.

  208.31 Oneida, Brook Farm, and the phalansteries] Three nineteenth-century utopian enterprises: the Oneida Community, founded in upstate New York in 1848; Brook Farm, also begun in the 1840s, in Massachusetts, and the subject of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Blithedale Romance (1852); and phalansteries, socialist communes inspired by the ideas of François Marie Charles Fourier (1772–1837).

  209.22 Tocqueville] Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859), French political philosopher and author of Democracy in America (1835–40).