Dearborn, Mary V. 1955-

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DEARBORN, Mary V. 1955-

PERSONAL: Born December 28, 1955, in Worcester, MA; daughter of Richard (a lawyer) and Joan (a homemaker; maiden name, Gilmer) Dearborn. Education: Columbia University, Ph.D., 1984.

ADDRESSES: Home—New York, NY. Agent—c/o Houghton Mifflin Company, Trade Division, Adult Editorial, 8th Fl., 222 Berkeley St., Boston, MA 02116-3764.

CAREER: Writer. Columbia University, Mellon fellow, 1986–87.

MEMBER: National Writers Union, Authors Guild.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Pocahontas's Daughters: Gender and Ethnicity in American Culture (literary criticism), Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1986.

Love in the Promised Land: The Story of Anzia Yezierska and John Dewey (biography), Free Press (New York, NY), 1988.

The Happiest Man Alive: A Biography of Henry Miller, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1991.

Queen of Bohemia: The Life of Louise Bryant (biography), Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1996.

Mailer: A Biography, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1999.

Mistress of Modernism: The Life of Peggy Guggenheim, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: Mary V. Dearborn is an American biographer and nonfiction writer. Called by Booklist critic Donna Seaman "a biographer of unwavering perception, intelligence, and eloquence," Dearborn's works include biographies of feminist journalist Louise Bryant, controversial authors Henry Miller and Norman Mailer, and art doyenne Peggy Guggenheim.

In The Happiest Man Alive: A Biography of Henry Miller, Dearborn presents a stark look at the life of one of the most important authors of twentieth-century American literature. Dearborn published the book in 1991, the one-hundred-year anniversary of Miller's birth, and traces his eighty-eight-year history and career. Dearborn explores the forces behind Miller's 1934 masterpiece Tropic of Cancer, which was considered pornographic and banned from publication in the United States until 1961. "Dearborn characterizes Tropic of Cancer as a willfully harsh and brutal book, devoid of sentiment," declared Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times. "And like many feminists she contends that 'he gave voice to certain male attitudes that reflect the deep sexual neuroses of 20th-century American culture.'" Dearborn focuses on the influences of significant people in Miller's life from a "mildly psychoanalytical" perspective, according to Perry Meisel in the New York Times Book Review. Included in her discussions are Miller's parents, whose anti-Semitism biased Miller's own views; his second wife June Smith Mansfield, who persuaded Miller to move to Paris; Michael Fraenkel, who urged Miller to change his prose style; and Anais Nin, a feminist writer who, related Bruce Bawer in the Wall Street Journal, "immortalized their affair in her diaries." The triangular relationship between Miller, Mansfield and Nin was later depicted in director/writer Phillip Kaufman's film Henry and June.

Sara Nelson in People pointed out that, although Miller's autobiographical works were—and still are—controversial because of differing interpretations on symbolic images of sexuality in his work, Dearborn asserts that "survival, not sex, was the theme of Miller's life." In the book, Dearborn argues that Miller's autobiographical works emphasized his suffering as a U.S. expatriate living in France and making a meager living on his art. Sex, according to Dearborn, was peripheral to Miller's personal survival and artistic development. Bawer in the Wall Street Journal remarked that the author "argues persuasively that the 'liberated' sexual views that made [Miller] a hero to '60s Playboy readers were in fact grounded in a puritanical equation of male society with the virtues of the mind and of female companionship with the sins of the flesh."

In general, The Happiest Man Alive met with critical approval. A Publishers Weekly reviewer declared the biography "revelatory" and elaborated that, in the book, Miller's history "turns out to be even more fascinating than [his] fictionalized autobiographies." Other reviewers compared Dearborn's biography with Robert Ferguson's Henry Miller: A Life, which was also published in 1991. Bawer noted in the Wall Street Journal that "parts of Miller's self and life fall together more coherently in Ms. Dearborn's well-shaped book; she seems closer than Mr. Ferguson to Miller's inner life, and has a keener grasp of the world of his youth." However, John Tytell in the Washington Post Book World remarked that "by using Miller's fiction as a source, Dearborn accepts too much of Miller's story at face value. Ferguson is more cautious, aware of the implicit exaggeration in anything Miller wrote." Molly Giles in the Los Angeles Times Book Review found merit in both titles, concluding that the two "are serious, scholarly and well-written."

Dearborn's Mailer: A Biography was also critically lauded. Library Journal critic Nathan Ward praised Dearborn's narrative "tracing Mailer's rise from indulged Brooklyn prodigy to pugnacious novelist and celebrity intellectual," as among the best books on the writer. Critics lauded Dearborn's thorough biography, covering every aspect of Mailer's life from his many marriages to his notorious headbutting of Gore Vidal. A Publishers Weekly reviewer claimed the work set "a standard for lucidity and general competence that even Mailer's authorized biography will be hard pressed to reach." Brad Hooper in Booklist concluded: "Dearborn has a reputation as a perceptive biographer, and her book [Mailer: A Biography] is ample proof of her ability."

With her 2004 title, Mistress of Modernism: The Life of Peggy Guggenheim, Dearborn reveals the life of the art patron who used her family money to fund abstract expressionist artists such as Jackson Pollock, and was also widely known in her day for her collection of not only art, but also lovers. Dearborn deals with both sides of Guggenheim in her biography, which is, according to Donna Seaman in Booklist, "serious fun." Seaman described the work as "solid history rendered deliciously anecdotal and gossipy." Dearborn's chronicle includes a wide cast of friends and associates of Guggenheim, such as the poet Djuna Barnes, the modern dancer Isadora Duncan, playwright Samuel Beckett and surrealist Max Ernst (both lovers of Guggenheim), as well as the art patron's two children, one of whom died a drug-related death in 1967. A critic writing in Kirkus Reviews found the resulting book "thoroughly, even lovingly researched," but was less impressed by the "chatty catty, and tendentious" tone. However, a Publishers Weekly contributor had no such reservations, praising the "fluid prose and provocative subject" of Mistress of Modernism, and noting that Dearborn had made good use of freshly opened archives and interviews with family members and friends to "add rich, gossipy detail about the heiress's life."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Art in America, June-July, 2005, review of Mistress of Modernism: The Life of Peggy Guggenheim, p. 71.

Booklist, December 15, 1995, Donna Seaman, review of Queen of Bohemia: The Life of Louise Bryant, p. 669; September 15, 1999, Brad Hooper, review of Mailer: A Biography, p. 195; August, 2004, Donna Seaman, review of Mistress of Modernism, p. 1866.

Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2004, review of Mistress of Modernism, p. 669.

Library Journal, October 15, 1999, Nathan Ward, review of Mailer, p. 71.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, July 7, 1991, Molly Giles, review of The Happiest Man Alive: A Biography of Henry Miller.

New York Times, May 17, 1991, Michicko Kakutani, review of The Happiest Man Alive.

New York Times Book Review, June 23, 1991, Perry Meisel, review of The Happiest Man Alive; February 11, 1996, p. 28.

People, July 15, 1991, Sara Nelson, review of The Happiest Man Alive; November 29, 1999, p. 63.

Publishers Weekly, March 22, 1991, review of The Happiest Man Alive, p. 68; November 13, 1995, review of Queen of Bohemia, p. 54; September 27, 1999, review of Mailer, p. 85; November 13, 2000, John F. Baker, "Guggenheim Revealed," p. 16; August 9, 2004, review of Mistress of Modernism, p. 244.

Wall Street Journal, May 30, 1991, Bruce Bawer, review of The Happiest Man Alive, p. A12.

Washington Post Book World, May 5, 1991, John Tytell, review of The Happiest Man Alive.