Editing Desmond MacCarthy

{{Short description|British writer (1877–1952)}}
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[[File:Desmond MacCarthy 1912.jpg|thumb|Desmond MacCarthy in 1912|alt=Photo of Desmond MacCarthy in 1912, seated on steps]]
'''Sir Charles Otto Desmond MacCarthy''' {{post-nominals|post-noms=[[FRSL]]|country=GRB}} (20 May 1877 – 7 June 1952) was a British writer and [[literary critic|literary]] and dramatic critic. He was a member of the [[Cambridge Apostles]], the intellectual secret society, from 1896.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rosner|first1=Victoria|title=The Cambridge Companion to the Bloomsbury Group|date=2014|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781107018242|page=33|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k66BAwAAQBAJ&dq=MacCarthy+++%22cambridge+apostles%22&pg=PA33|accessdate=3 January 2018}}</ref>

==Early life and education==
The son of Charles Desmond MacCarthy, M.A., and a descendant of the last [[MacCarthy Mor dynasty|MacCarthy]] [[Chief of the Name]] and King of Desmond,<ref>Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, 1902, pg 15</ref><ref>Irish Pedigrees; or the Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation, John O'Hart, 5th ed., 1892, MACCARTHY DUNA (NO.9) Of Ballyneadig and Lyradane pedigree</ref> MacCarthy was born on 20 May 1877<ref>Birth Certificate GRO</ref> in [[Plymouth]], [[Devon]], and educated at [[Eton College]] and [[Trinity College, Cambridge]].<ref>{{acad|id=MRTY894CO|name=MacCarthy, Charles Otto Desmond}}</ref> At Cambridge he got to know [[Lytton Strachey]], [[Bertrand Russell]] and [[G. E. Moore]].

==Career==
A member of the [[Bloomsbury Group]], MacCarthy also had a wider circle of friends, including [[Logan Pearsall Smith]].{{citation needed|date=April 2015}}

In 1903 he became a [[journalist]], with moderate success.

For part of the [[World War I|First World War]] he worked in Naval Intelligence.

In 1917 he joined the ''[[New Statesman]]'' as a drama critic, and in 1920 became its literary editor. He wrote a weekly column under the pen-name "The Affable Hawk". During this time he recruited [[Cyril Connolly]] to the paper.

By 1928 he was losing interest in the ''New Statesman'', and became the first editor of ''[[Life and Letters]]''.<ref name ="Lewis">Jeremy Lewis ''Cyril Connolly: A Life'' Jonathan Cape 1997</ref>  Other periodicals he was associated with were ''New Quarterly'' and ''Eye Witness''. MacCarthy became a literary critic for the ''[[The Sunday Times (UK)|Sunday Times]]'', and several volumes of his collected criticism were published.

He was the author of the short ghost story "Pargiton and Harby", reprinted in the ''Fourth Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories''.

He was knighted in the 1951 New Year's Honours.{{cn|date=August 2020}}

==Personal life==
[[File:Grave of Sir Desmond MacCarthy.jpg|thumb|upright|Grave of Desmond and Mary MacCarthy]]
In 1906, MacCarthy married [[Mary (Molly) MacCarthy|Mary "Mollie" Warre-Cornish]], daughter of [[Francis Warre Warre-Cornish]]. She was a respected literary figure in her own right. Her sister Cecilia married [[William Wordsworth Fisher]]. They had two sons, Michael and [[Dermod MacCarthy|Dermod]], and a daughter, Rachel, who married the literary historian [[Lord David Cecil]]; their son was the actor [[Jonathan Cecil]]. 

He is buried with his wife at the [[Ascension Parish Burial Ground, Cambridge|Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground]] in Cambridge.

== Works ==
* ''[[Royal Court Theatre|The Court Theatre]]'' (1907)
* ''Portraits'' (1931)
* ''Drama'' (1940)
* ''Memories'' (1953)
* ''Humanities'' (1953)
* ''Theatre'' (1955)

==See also==
*[[List of Bloomsbury Group people]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* T. Avery, ''Desmond and Molly MacCarthy: Bloomsberries'' (2010)
* H. and M. Cecil, ''Clever Hearts: Desmond and Molly MacCarthy'' (1990)
* D. Cecil (ed.), ''Desmond MacCarthy  the Man and his Writings'' (1984)
* Quentin Bell, "Virginia Woolf  A Biography"

==External links==
* {{Gutenberg author | id=38260| name=Desmond MacCarthy}}
* {{FadedPage|id=MacCarthy, Desmond|name=Desmond MacCarthy|author=yes}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Desmond MacCarthy}}
{{Bloomsbury Group}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maccarthy, Desmond}}
[[Category:1877 births]]
[[Category:1952 deaths]]
[[Category:British male journalists]]
[[Category:British literary critics]]
[[Category:British theatre critics]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:Writers from Plymouth, Devon]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:New Statesman people]]
[[Category:Bloomsbury Group]]
[[Category:Presidents of the English Centre of PEN]]