Order of Book Series
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Mary McCarthy Books in Order

Mary McCarthy has written 28 books, published between 1942 and 2017. The first book is The Company She Keeps (1942) and the newest is Mary McCarthy: The Complete Fiction (2017). Publication order is the reading order below.

Books
28
Published
1942–2017
Pages on record
5,828 in 12 of 28 books
See all 28 books in order Printable Mary McCarthy checklist
Photo of Mary McCarthy, author

The Company She Keeps (1942) opens Mary McCarthy's catalogue of 28 titles, which takes in Memories of a Catholic Girlhood (1946), The Groves of Academe (1951), A Charmed Life (1955) and The Stones of Florence (1959). McCarthy (1912-1989) worked as novelist, critic and political activist, and The Group is the novel most attached to the name. The Horizon Prize came in 1949, two Guggenheim Fellowships in 1949 and 1959, and membership of the National Institute of Arts and Letters after that. Edmund Wilson, Hannah Arendt and Lillian Hellman figure in the biography as husband, close friend and adversary.

How many Mary McCarthy books are there?

Mary McCarthy has 28 books, released between 1942 and 2017.

Mary McCarthy Books in Publication Order

The table lists all 28 Mary McCarthy books in the order they were published, with the release year, the page count where one is on record, and how many independent book listings confirm each title. Catalogue data as of September 2026.

  1. Cover of The Company She Keeps by Mary McCarthy (1942)
  2. Cover of Memories of a Catholic Girlhood by Mary McCarthy (1946)
  3. Cover of The Oasis by Mary McCarthy (1949)
  4. Cover of The Group by Mary McCarthy (1963)
  5. Cover of The Mask of State by Mary McCarthy (1974)
  6. Cover of The Hounds of Summer and Other Stories by Mary McCarthy (1981)
  7. Cover of Intellectual Memoirs: New York, 1936-1938 by Mary McCarthy (1992)
  8. Cover of Between Friends by Mary McCarthy (1995)
  9. Cover of A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy (2001)
  10. Cover of Novels 1963-1979 by Mary McCarthy (2017)
  11. Cover of Mary McCarthy: The Complete Fiction by Mary McCarthy (2017)
  1. 1
    The Company She Keeps1942 · 324 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1942324
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  2. 2
    Memories of a Catholic Girlhood1946 · confirmed 1/4
    1946–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  3. 3
    The Oasis1949 · 129 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1949129
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  4. 4
    Cast a Cold Eye1950 · confirmed 1/4
    1950–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  5. 5
    The Groves of Academe1951 · confirmed 1/4
    1951–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  6. 6
    A Charmed Life1955 · confirmed 1/4
    1955–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  7. 7
    Venice Observed1956 · confirmed 1/4
    1956–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  8. 8
    Sights and Spectacles1957 · confirmed 1/4
    1957–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  9. 9
    The Stones of Florence1959 · confirmed 1/4
    1959–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  10. 10
    On the Contrary1962 · confirmed 1/4
    1962–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  11. 11
    The Group1963 · 492 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1963492
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  12. 12
    A Source of Embarrassment1964 · confirmed 1/4
    1964–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  13. 13
    Birds of America1965 · confirmed 1/4
    1965–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  14. 14
    Vietnam1967 · confirmed 1/4
    1967–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  15. 15
    Hanoi1968 · 159 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1968159
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  16. 16
    Writing on the Wall and Other Literary Essays1971 · confirmed 1/4
    1971–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  17. 17
    Medina1972 · 92 pages · confirmed 1/4
    197292
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  18. 18
    The Mask of State1974 · 165 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1974165
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  19. 19
    Cannibals and Missionaries1979 · confirmed 1/4
    1979–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  20. 20
    Ideas and the Novel1980 · confirmed 1/4
    1980–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  21. 22
    Occasional Prose: Essays1985 · confirmed 1/4
    1985–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  22. 23
    How I Grew1987 · confirmed 1/4
    1987–
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  23. 24
    Intellectual Memoirs: New York, 1936-19381992 · 134 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1992134
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  24. 25
    Between Friends1995 · 412 pages · confirmed 1/4
    1995412
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  25. 26
    A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays2001 · 389 pages · confirmed 1/4
    2001389
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  26. 27
    Novels 1963-19792017 · 1072 pages · confirmed 1/4
    20171072
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK
  27. 28
    Mary McCarthy: The Complete Fiction2017 · 2220 pages · confirmed 1/4
    20172220
    Buy at Amazon USAmazon UK

Mary McCarthy books grouped by series

Each title below is a row in the publication-order table above. None of these groups has a reading-order page of its own on this site.

Standalone books

28 books

28 Mary McCarthy titles here are not listed as part of any series.

Do you have to read Mary McCarthy books in order?

No. No source lists any of the 28 Mary McCarthy books here as part of a series. The numbered table above gives them by publication date.

Where to start with Mary McCarthy

Start with The Company She Keeps (1942), the earliest published title.

What is the newest Mary McCarthy book?

Mary McCarthy: The Complete Fiction (2017) is the newest Mary McCarthy book released so far.

Is there a new Mary McCarthy book coming?

No next Mary McCarthy book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.

Mary McCarthy at a glance

No recent titles
The newest Mary McCarthy title on record dates from 2017, 9 years ago. No later title is catalogued.
Release pace
Mary McCarthy books have appeared about one every 3 years on average.
Length
5,828 pages across the 12 of 28 books with a recorded length, a median of 282 pages each.
Busiest decade
Most Mary McCarthy books, 6 of 28, were published in the 1960s.

What the Mary McCarthy books are about

13 of the 28 Mary McCarthy books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: authors is tagged on 3 of 13. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.