Miss MacIntosh, My Darling: The Reading Experiment

In 1974-1975, Charles Ruas produced a series of WBAI radio programs focused on literature and radio performance, called “The Reading Experiment”. As part of this series, Miss MacIntosh, My Darling was read over a year-long period by Marguerite Young’s contemporaries from the New York City literature, music, and theater communities including Marian Seldes, John Ford Noonan, Ocseola Archer, Leo Lerman, Dolores Brandon, and more. All readings are underscored with soundscapes and music by artist Rob Wynne.

In 2012-2013, The Reading Experiment program was restored by The Clocktower Radio, with the assistance of Charles Ruas, and by agreement with The Yale Beinecke Library, home to the Marguerite Young Papers. The restoration for Clocktower Radio was overseen by executive producer David Weinstein with segment producers Tennae Maki and Jeannie Hopper. Special thanks to Dr. Constance Eichenlaub for her generous support.

This Marguerite Young site has the privilege of sharing the radio shows of Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, as part of the Historic Audio from the Archives of Charles Ruas. Interviews with Marguerite Young and others follow the readings.

Note: This site includes the introductory program notes and commentary for shows and interviews as originally broadcast on WBAI radio and during subsequent restorations. Some program notes have been modified to enhance clarity for current readers.

Marguerite Young (1908-1995) was a native of the Midwest and an eccentric inhabitant of Greenwich Village. She went from teaching English in Indianapolis to living in the historic town of New Harmony, Indiana, site of two 19th century utopian settlements. Once she was there, she began to write Angel in the Forest: A Fairy Tale of Two Utopias (1945), which would later be recognized by the Guggenheim and Newberry Library.

In the early 1940’s she relocated to New York, where she traveled and collaborated with other members of the city’s literary scene, including: Truman Capote, Anais Nin, Carson McCullers, and Leo Lerman. It was during her early years in New York that she began to write her one and only novel, Miss MacIntosh, My Darling. The book took her 18 years to complete and was eventually published in 1965. She died in 1995.

Among her publication credits are: Prismatic Ground (1937), Moderate Fable (1944), Inviting the Muses: Stories, Essays, Reviews (1994). She also regularly contributed to Vogue, Mademoiselle, The New York Times, New York Herald Tribune, The Chicago Sun, and The Washington Post Book World.