Black Ice (memoir)

Cary grew up in a working-class background^[1] in Philadelphia. In 1972, she was invited to the elite St. Paul's boarding school in New Hampshire, on scholarship,^[2] as only the second African-American female student.^[2] She spent two years at St. Paul's, graduating in 1974,^[3] and then worked as a journalist for publications including Time. After first writing about her experience at St. Paul's in a magazine article in 1988,^[4] she published a more complete memoir, Black Ice.

The book was published in 1991 by Alfred A. Knopf,^[2] and Phillip Lopate, reviewing the book for The New York Times called it a "stunning memoir".^[4] The book, "bruisingly honest about class, race and sex in America",^[1] found success with the critics and was shortlisted the same year by The New York Times as "summer reading";^[5] her first publication, it was republished the next year by Vintage Books.^[6]