Mary MacCarthy

Mary MacCarthy (1882– December 29, 1953) was a British writer, known for her involvement in the "Bloomsbury Group".

Lady Mary MacCarthy was the daughter of the teacher and man-of-letters Francis Warre Warre-Cornish. She was commonly called Molly.

In 1906 she married the literary critic Sir Desmond MacCarthy, with whom she had one daughter, Rachel.

Though prevented by progressive hearing-loss from full participation in group conversation, she was active in the Bloomsbury group, as demonstrated by her formation of its Memoir group and Novel group, and by coining the term "Bloomsberries" to describe its members.

Her sister Cecilia married William Wordsworth Fisher later Admiral. Her daughter Rachel married the biographer David Cecil.

She is buried at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge, with her husband.

Sources

• The Bloomsbury Group: A Collection of Memoirs and Commentary, ed. S. P. Rosenbaum (University of Toronto Press, revised edition, 1995).
• Clever hearts: Desmond and Molly MacCarthy: a biography, by Hugh and Mirabel Cecil (Gollancz, 1990).

Selected bibliography

• A Pier and a Band (1918)
• A Nineteenth Century Childhood (1924)
• Fighting Fitzgerald and Other Papers (1930)
• Handicaps: Six Studies (1936)
• The Festival, Etc. (1937)

External links

• Mary MacCarthy at Find a Grave