Research Catalog

Title

Sharp : the women who made an art of having an opinion / Michelle Dean.

Author

Dean, Michelle, 1979-

Publication

• New York : Grove Press, 2018.
• ©2018

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xiii, 362 pages; 24 cm

Summary

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.

Subject

• Parker, Dorothy, 1893-1967
• West, Rebecca, 1892-1983
• Hurston, Zora Neale
• Arendt, Hannah, 1906-1975
• McCarthy, Mary, 1912-1989
• Sontag, Susan, 1933-2004
• Kael, Pauline
• Didion, Joan
• Ephron, Nora
• Hellman, Lillian, 1905-1984
• Adler, Renata
• Malcolm, Janet
• American literature > Women authors > History and criticism
• Women authors, American > 20th century > Political and social views
• American literature > 20th century > History and criticism
• BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY > Literary Figures
• LITERARY COLLECTIONS > Women Authors
• SOCIAL SCIENCE > Women's Studies

Genre/Form

Biographies.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Preface -- Parker -- West -- West & Hurston -- Arendt -- McCarthy -- Parker & Arendt -- Arendt & McCarthy -- Sontag -- Kael -- Didion -- Ephron -- Arendt & McCarthy & Hellman -- Adler -- Malcolm -- Afterword.

Call Number

JFE 18-4014

ISBN

• 9780802125095
• 0802125093

LCCN

2017051038

OCLC

1019834624

Author

Dean, Michelle, 1979- author.

Title

Sharp : the women who made an art of having an opinion / Michelle Dean.

Publisher

New York : Grove Press, 2018.

Copyright Date

©2018

Edition

First edition.

First Grove Atlantic hardcover edition.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Form:

Online version: Dean, Michelle, 1979- Sharp. First Grove Atlantic hardcover edition. New York : Grove Press, 2018 9780802165718 (DLC) 2017059832

Research Call Number

JFE 18-4014