Kiernan, Frances 1944-

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Kiernan, Frances 1944-

PERSONAL:

Born 1944.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY.

CAREER:

Writer, editor, and biographer. New Yorker, New York, NY, fiction editor. Worked as a book editor.

WRITINGS:

Seeing Mary Plain: A Life of Mary McCarthy, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 2000.

The Last Mrs. Astor: A New York Story, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Writer and biographer Frances Kiernan is a former fiction editor for the New Yorker who has also worked as a book editor. Her two books of biography present the life stories of two women who were prominent and powerful in their respective areas of literature and philanthropy. In Seeing Mary Plain: A Life of Mary McCarthy, Kiernan presents a biography of McCarthy, a pioneering journalist, critic, and observer whose career spanned more than five decades. McCarthy "wrote about politics, literature, theater, art. She defended Leon Trotsky against the literary Stalinists of the '30s, organized left-wing anti-Communist writers during the Cold War, covered Vietnam and Watergate," noted Paul Rosenthal on Salon.com. Also a novelist, McCarthy "created a mordant fiction of ideas and their seductions, a stylish erotica of class, power and the intellect," Rosenthal stated.

"Beautiful, witty, and infinitely contentious, she was called ‘the dark lady of American letters,’ as though American letters needed to contain a woman so dangerous by means of a nervous epithet," Rosenthal observed. As early as her parochial school days, those around her knew that McCarthy did not possess merely average aptitude, and would not achieve merely average goals: a nun compared her to the poet Lord Byron, then, calling her "brilliant but unsound," reported Melanie Rehak in Harper's Bazaar. A graduate of Vassar, McCarthy dove into the intellectual, cultural, and political world of New York and carved out a place for herself as much through grit and determination as through ability. She was a cofounder of the prominent literary journal Partisan Review; she practiced her fiction and nonfiction writing diligently, and with a critic's discerning tastes reacted to the world around her; and, inevitably, she engaged in feuds, as when disparaging remarks she made on the Dick Cavett Show about playwright Lillian Hellman resulted in a lawsuit. Headstrong and stubborn, ferociously intelligent, darkly gorgeous and charming, McCarthy encountered many of the best-known lights in American literary circles. Despised by some, loved by others, McCarthy was devoted and loyal to her friends, and held herself to exactingly high standards in all that she did in both her professional and personal life.

Throughout her biography, Kiernan adds detailed reminiscences from almost 200 people who knew McCarthy; their memories of the book's subject add considerable heft to the volume and primary source observations to the story of McCarthy's life. Notably, Kiernan's interview subjects are as divergent in their opinions of McCarthy as they were when they knew her, and these "disagreements constitute the cornerstone of Kiernan's biography," observed Booklist reviewer Mary Carroll. Kiernan's biography is as "engagingly complex as its subject," Rehak observed, finding that "despite its daunting scope, Kiernan's book makes a point of not taking sides, and beautifully delivers what its title promises—a clear-eyed view of a controversial woman."

In her second biography, The Last Mrs. Astor: A New York Story, Kiernan presents a relatively positive portrait of New York socialite and philanthropist Brooke Astor, one of the city's best-known, most loved, and most lauded women. Kiernan explores the life and phenomenal accomplishments of the wealthy and generous Astor. When her second husband, Charles Marshall, died after twenty years of marriage, Astor became the object of the affection of Vincent Astor, an extraordinarily rich man with a legendary ill-temper. Some believe that Vincent Astor's wife at the time, Minnie, was looking for a way to escape her miserable marriage, and helped arrange the match-up between Vincent and Brooke. They were married in 1953, and some say that Brooke married Astor not for love, but for money. Whatever her motives, Brooke Astor became the president of the philanthropic Astor foundation in 1961, two years after Vincent's death. From then on, her generosity helped sustain literary, cultural, and intellectual projects in New York. Among the institutions she assisted, started, or rescued from financial ruin were the New York Public Library, Central Park, the Bronx Zoo, the Metropolitan Museum, and the New York Review of Books, noted New York Observer reviewer Hillary Frey. During New York's near-bankruptcy in the 1970s, Brooke Astor was influential in keeping some institutions afloat, and in encouraging others to contribute enough to save the city, reported Paula Marantz Cohen in the Philadelphia Inquirer. "The causes and institutions she championed flourished not because her donations were especially large but because her imprimatur enticed other benefactors to follow suit. She became the symbol of New York glamour and good works," Cohen remarked.

Though Kiernan does not dwell on negativity and scandal in Astor's life, she does devote some space to a tragic turn of events in 2006, in which Astor's son, Anthony Marshall, was accused by her grandson of neglecting the 105-year-old woman's care. He was said to be confining her to a small brownstone apartment, had fired longtime faithful family employees, and was shamelessly enriching himself from Astor's still immense fortune. As a result, Marshall was removed as Astor's guardian. A lawsuit between Astor's son and grandson was postponed until the woman's death, noted Bob Minzesheimer in USA Today. Brooke Astor died August 13, 2007.

Frey called Kiernan's book "a concise and engaging look at the tiny doyenne of society who did so much good for Gotham," and concluded that The Last Mrs. Astor is a "valuable and enjoyable appreciation of a great old lady, a relic of old, rapidly disappearing New York."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Biography, fall, 2000, Lee Siegal and Larissa MacFarquhar, review of Seeing Mary Plain: A Life of Mary McCarthy, p. 816; winter, 2001, A.O. Scott and Lorna Sage, review of Seeing Mary Plain, p. 343; summer, 2007, Liesl Schillinger, review of The Last Mrs. Astor: A New York Story, p. 412.

Booklist, February 1, 2000, Mary Carroll, review of Seeing Mary Plain, p. 1004.

Choice, October, 2000, J. Overmyer, review of Seeing Mary Plain, p. 330.

Christian Science Monitor, April 6, 2000, review of Seeing Mary Plain, p. 15.

Chronicle of Philanthropy, May 31, 2007, Anne W. Howard, "A Biography of a Socialite and Philanthropist," review of The Last Mrs. Astor.

Commentary, March, 2000, Midge Decter, "Missing Mary McCarthy," review of Seeing Mary Plain, p. 53.

Dissent, winter, 2001, Vanessa Mobley, review of Seeing Mary Plain, p. 122.

Economist, October 7, 2000, review of Seeing Mary Plain, p. 151; June 16, 2007, "Queen Brooke; American Royalty," review of The Last Mrs. Astor, p. 97.

Entertainment Weekly, March 24, 2000, review of Seeing Mary Plain, p. 97.

Harper's Bazaar, March, 2000, Melanie Rehak, "Agent Provocateur," review of Seeing Mary Plain, p. 300.

Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2007, review of The Last Mrs. Astor.

Library Journal, January 2000, Morris Hounion, review of Seeing Mary Plain, p. 106; May 1, 2007, Elaine Machleder, review of The Last Mrs. Astor, p. 85.

Nation, June 12, 2000, "Princess among the Trolls," review of Seeing Mary Plain, p. 20.

National Post, June 9, 2007, Paula Marantz Cohen, "Rise and Fall of a New York Legend," review of The Last Mrs. Astor, p. 5.

New York Observer, May 15, 2007, Hillary Frey, "Beloved Brooke: Third Mrs. Astor, First Lady of New York," review of The Last Mrs. Astor.

New York Review of Books, September 21, 2000, A.O. Scott, review of Seeing Mary Plain, p. 20.

New York Times Book Review, March 26, 2000, Larissa MacFarquhar, "Group Therapy; Frances Kiernan Explores the Life of Mary McCarthy through the Opinions of Friends and Enemies," review of Seeing Mary Plain, p. 8; June 17, 2007, Liesl Schillinger, "Astor's Place," review of The Last Mrs. Astor, p. 7.

Philadelphia Inquirer, June 6, 2007, Paula Marantz Cohen, "Her Long Life of Glitter, Giving and, Recently, Pathos," review of The Last Mrs. Astor.

Publishers Weekly, February 7, 2000, review of Seeing Mary Plain, p. 73; March 26, 2007, review of The Last Mrs. Astor, p. 79.

Reference & Research Book News, August, 2000, review of Seeing Mary Plain, p. 199; August, 2007, review of The Last Mrs. Astor.

Time, March 27, 2000, Lance Morrow, "Portrait of a Dark Lady: A Biography Captures the World of the Brilliant, Tart-Tongued Critic and Novelist Mary McCarthy," review of Seeing Mary Plain, p. 97.

Times Literary Supplement, September 8, 2000, Lorna Sage, review of Seeing Mary Plain, p. 24.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), June 23, 2007, Paula Marantz Cohen, "Champion of New York: A Look at Brooke Astor's Long Life of Glitter, Giving and Pathos," review of The Last Mrs. Astor, p. 9.

USA Today, May 16, 2007, Bob Minzesheimer, "Mrs. Astor Is Rich with Money, Scandal, and Heart," review of The Last Mrs. Astor.

Vogue, March, 2000, Sarah Kerr, review of Seeing Mary Plain, p. 378.

Wall Street Journal, March 17, 2000, review of Seeing Mary Plain, p. 9.

Weekly Standard, May 28, 2007, Judy Bachrach, "Dame at Sea; Life Overshadows Art in Mrs. Astor's Biography," review of The Last Mrs. Astor.

World Literature Today, winter, 2001, John L. Brown, review of Seeing Mary Plain, p. 125.