Miss MacIntosh, My Darling: Chapter 82, part 2: The Stone Deaf Man, Betty Lou Holland

This is the last part of the final chapter of Marguerite Young’s epic novel. It was read and recorded in 1975 by Betty Lou Holland at the WBAI studios. It was never fully produced and it did not air as a radio segment. This is, therefore, the raw reading of the final passages of Chapter 82, Miss MacIntosh, My Darling.

A New York City native, Holland (1926-2011) was an actress best known for her work on Broadway. She performed in numerous comedies including Annie Get Your Gun and Goodbye, Mister Fancy. In the 1950's she transitioned to the silver screen, where she starred in The Man in the Net and John Cromwell's The Goddess.

The poet, Daisy Alden, began reading the conclusion of Miss MacIntosh, My Darling, at which point, Vera Cartwheel was contemplating the loss of her mother and the Opium Paradise; a vanquished utopia. In the last few pages of the novel, Vera makes mention of her future lover- a deaf man with a musical voice. The book ends with Vera recalling Esther Longtree as one who might be the mother of us all, Mr. Spitzer an occupant of an invisible world, and Miss. MacIntosh, the center of an expanding universe.

Often compared to James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, Young's novel resonates with unique and poignant observations of American culture, in an epic and surrealist poetic prose. It took the under-recognized, enigmatic and iconoclastic author eighteen years of work to complete this dense, two volume novel.

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, 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. All readings are underscored with soundscapes and music by artist Rob Wynne.

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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