Marguerite Young, "Miss MacIntosh, My Darling" (Deep Vellum Publishing, 2024)

New Books in Literature

In this episode I'm joined by Dalkey Archive's editorial director, Chad W. Post. We discuss the republication of the late Marguerite Young's cult-classic work of fiction, Miss MacIntosh, My Darling (Dalkey Archive Press, 2024). A colossal novel of over 1,000 pages, a kaleidoscopic cast of characters, permanent opium-induced hallucinations, a sprawling sense of scope, and a truly distinct and lyrical prose style--it's a doozy. I haven't finished yet myself, having stopped and restarted multiple times over the years, but that's the beauty of it; it's challenging, wandering, dense, at times utterly absurd, but always rewarding. Chad painstakingly walks us through the book's editorial legacy, and the gargantuan task of excavating this text and introducing it to new generations.

Chad W. Post is the publisher of Open Letter Books and Editorial Director for the Dalkey Archive Press. He also writes a Substack called "Mining the Dalkey Archive."

Marguerite Young, a descendant of Brigham Young, was born in Indiana in 1909 and spent most of her life in Greenwich Village, where she associated with writers like Richard Wright, Carson McCullers, Truman Capote, and Gertrude Stein. In addition to Miss MacIntosh, My Darling she published two works of poetry, a work of nonfiction (Angel in the Forest), a collection of essays and stories (Inviting the Muses), and Harp Song for a Radical: The Life and Times of Eugene Victor Debs, which was published posthumously.

Tyler Thier, your host, is a faculty member and administrator in the Department of Writing Studies & Rhetoric at Hofstra University. He regularly writes and teaches cultural criticism, and his scholarship is concerned with malicious rhetoric and dangerous media—specifically, extremist manifestos.

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