Sharp

The ten brilliant women who are the focus of _Sharp_ came from different backgrounds and had vastly divergent political and artistic opinions. But they all made a significant contribution to the cultural and intellectual history of America and ultimately changed the course of the twentieth century, in spite of the men who often undervalued or dismissed their work. These ten women―Dorothy Parker, Rebecca West, Hannah Arendt, Mary McCarthy, Susan Sontag, Pauline Kael, Joan Didion, Nora Ephron, Renata Adler, and Janet Malcolm―are united by what Dean calls “sharpness,” the ability to cut to the quick with precision of thought and wit. Sharp is a vibrant depiction of the intellectual _beau monde_ of twentieth-century New York, where gossip-filled parties at night gave out to literary slugging-matches in the pages of the _Partisan Review_ or the _New York Review of Books_. It is also a passionate portrayal of how these women asserted themselves through their writing in a climate where women were treated with extreme condescension by the male-dominated cultural establishment. Mixing biography, literary criticism, and cultural history, _Sharp_ is a celebration of this group of extraordinary women, an engaging introduction to their works, and a testament to how anyone who feels powerless can claim the mantle of writer, and, perhaps, change the world. Michelle Dean Michelle Dean is a journalist, critic, and the recipient of the National Book Critics Circle’s 2016 Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing. A contributing editor at the _New Republic_, she has written for the _New Yorker_, _Nation_, _New York Times Magazine_, _Slate_, _New York Magazine_, _Elle_, _Harper’s_, and _BuzzFeed_. She lives in Los Angeles.