The reputation of "our First Lady of Letters" (as Norman Mailer dubs Miss McCarthy) rests, without question, as solidly on her critical writing as on her fiction. And perhaps she will be best remembered as a critic, for, in a sense, she may be accused of having written little else but criticism, so much are her short stories and novels mockingly and cleverly explanatory. (p. 48)

[In an article published in The Nation entitled "Our Actors and the Critics"], Miss McCarthy contends that drama criticism in America is purblind to acting because the American theater reviewer is unable to distinguish between manuscript and acting and between acting and direction. This failure has resulted in the critic resorting to such imprecise and catch-all terms as "brilliant," "sincere," and "moving" on the rare occasions that he does attempt to define the qualities he admires in certain actors. As Miss McCarthy points...