Sharp : The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion

A "deeply researched and uncommonly engrossing" book profiling ten trailblazing literary women, including Dorothy Parker and Joan Didion ( Paris Review ). In Sharp , Michelle Dean explores the lives of ten women of vastly different backgrounds and points of view who all made a significant contribution to the cultural and intellectual history of America. These women—Dorothy Parker, Rebecca West, Hannah Arendt, Mary McCarthy, Susan Sontag, Pauline Kael, Joan Didion, Nora Ephron, Renata Adler, and Janet Malcolm—are united by what Dean calls "sharpness," the ability to cut to the quick with precision of thought and wit. Sharp is a vibrant depiction of the intellectual beau monde of twentieth-century New York, where gossip-filled parties gave out to literary slugging-matches in the pages of the Partisan Review or the New York Review of Books . It is also a passionate portrayal of how these women asserted themselves through their writing despite the extreme condescension of the male-dominated cultural establishment. Mixing biography, literary criticism, and cultural history, Sharp is a celebration of this group of extraordinary women, an engaging introduction to their works, and a testament to how anyone who feels powerless can claim the mantle of writer, and, perhaps, change the world. The ten brilliant women who are the focus of Sharp came from different backgrounds and had vastly divergent political and artistic opinions. But they all made a significant contribution to the cultural and intellectual history of America and ultimately changed the course of the twentieth century, in spite of the men who often undervalued or dismissed their work. These ten women--Dorothy Parker, Rebecca West, Hannah Arendt, Mary McCarthy, Susan Sontag, Pauline Kael, Joan Didion, Nora Ephron, Renata Adler, and Janet Malcolm--are united by what Dean calls "sharpness," the ability to cut to the quick with precision of thought and wit. Sharp is a vibrant depiction of the intellectual beau monde of twentieth-century New York, where gossip-filled parties at night gave out to literary slugging-matches in the pages of the Partisan Review or the New York Review of Books. It is also a passionate portrayal of how these women asserted themselves through their writing in a climate where women were treated with extreme condescension by the male-dominated cultural establishment. Mixing biography, literary criticism, and cultural history, Sharp is a celebration of this group of extraordinary women, an engaging introduction to their works, and a testament to how anyone who feels powerless can claim the mantle of writer, and, perhaps, change the world. -- Provided by publisher A "deeply researched and uncommonly engrossing" book profiling ten trailblazing literary women, including Dorothy Parker and Joan Didion ( Paris Review ). In Sharp , Michelle Dean explores the lives of ten women of vastly different backgrounds and points of view who all made a significant contribution to the cultural and intellectual history of America. These women#8212;Dorothy Parker, Rebecca West, Hannah Arendt, Mary McCarthy, Susan Sontag, Pauline Kael, Joan Didion, Nora Ephron, Renata Adler, and Janet Malcolm#8212;are united by what Dean calls "sharpness," the ability to cut to the quick with precision of thought and wit. Sharp is a vibrant depiction of the intellectual beau monde of twentieth-century New York, where gossip-filled parties gave out to literary slugging-matches in the pages of the Partisan Review or the New York Review of Books . It is also a passionate portrayal of how these women asserted themselves through their writing despite the extreme condescension of the male-dominated cultural establishment. Mixing biography, literary criticism, and cultural history, Sharp is a celebration of this group of extraordinary women, an engaging introduction to their works, and a testament to how anyone who feels powerless can claim the mantle of writer, and, perhaps, change the world Title Page 2 Copyright 4 Dedication 6 Contents 7 Preface 8 Chapter One: Parker 12 Chapter Two: West 35 Chapter Three: West & Hurston 56 Chapter Four: Arendt 61 Chapter Five: McCarthy 81 Chapter Six: Parker & Arendt 103 Chapter Seven: Arendt & McCarthy 110 Chapter Eight: Sontag 121 Chapter Nine: Kael 142 Chapter Ten: Didion 163 Chapter Eleven: Ephron 183 Chapter Twelve: Arendt & McCarthy & Hellman 202 Chapter Thirteen: Adler 208 Chapter Fourteen: Malcolm 226 Afterword 246 Note on Sources 249 Bibliography 250 Notes 252 Index 288 Back Cover 320 Preface Parker West West & Hurston Arendt McCarthy Parker & Arendt Arendt & McCarthy Sontag Kael Didion Ephron Arendt & McCarthy & Lillian Hellman Adler Malcolm Afterword. From Celebrated Literary Critic Michelle Dean, A Powerful Portrait Of Ten Women Writers Who Managed To Make Their Voices Heard Amid A Culture Of Sexism