How I Grew

How I Grew explores the young adulthood of Mary
McCarthy, one of the most outspoken and prominent
intellectuals of the twentieth century. Focusing on eight formative
years of her life—from high school in the Seattle area
through college at Vassar—McCarthy reveals a girl by turns
vulnerable, independent, dramatic, lonely, inquisitive,
romantic, demonstrably bright, and uncommonly daring.
In candid, often intimate detail, How I Grew recounts
McCarthy’s early attempts at writing; her relationships with
teachers, family, and friends; a melodramatic flirtation with
suicide; and experiences as dissimilar as her first job and her
first seduction.
A natural companion to the much-praised Memories of a
Catholic Girlhood, this is a remarkable personal chronicle, an
utterly convincing self-portrait, and a superb addition to the
art of the autobiography.