Miss Macintosh, My Darling: The Reading Experiment

In 1976-77, Charles Ruas produced a series of WBAI radio programs focused on literature and radio performance, called "The Reading Experiment". As part of this series, Marguerite Young's Miss MacIntosh, My Darling was read over a year-long period by the author’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.

The listen link on this page launches a compilation of all chapters restored by the Clocktower Gallery and Radio. To browse for individual readings visit the Marguerite Young: Miss MacIntosh, My Darling section of the archive here.

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 a utopic commune called New Harmony. 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.


This program has been 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. Special thanks to Dr. Contance Eichenlaub for her passion and generosity.

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