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Born Mary
Flannery O’Connor on March 25, 1925, in Savannah, Georgia. Only
child. Father: real estate developer. Mother: homekeeper, later
dairy farmer. Raised Catholic. Childhood distinctions: shy;
artistic; bizarre humor. 1938 moved to Milledgeville, Ga. 1941
father died of lupus at 40. 1942 Graduates from Peabody H.S. 1945
graduates from Georgia State College for Women. 1946 ‘Geranium’,
first short story published. 1947 master of fine arts degree at the
University of Iowa in creative writing. 1947-1950 in New York and
Conn. writes short stories and begins first novel. Stories are
violent, grotesque, with underlying Christian themes. 1950 onset of
lupus, return to Milledgeville. 1951 with mother moved to nearby
family dairy farm ‘Andalusia’. 1952 learns she has lupus; publishes
novel Wise Blood
to mixed reviews. 1955
prize-winning short stories published as collection A Good Man Is Hard to
Find. 1956 health
worsens, on crutches, but continues to write, travels to lecture,
dotes on beloved peacocks. 1957 wins first of two O. Henry Awards.
1960 Second and last novel The Violent Bear It Away published. 1964 at 39 died August 3 of
lupus, buried in Memory Hill Cemetery, Milledgeville. 1964 second
collection of prize-winning short stories published as
Everything That Rises
Must Converge after her
death.
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Flannery
O’Connor managed--as few other American writers since the
secularization of America--to infuse her writing with Christian
mystery. She was admittedly a ‘Thomist’, i.e., like Thomas Aquinas
believed that human life is connected to the divine, which is
revealed through signs. In the strictest sense to a Catholic the
divine is present in the Sacraments administered by the church. But
Flannery was a ‘neo-Thomist’ too, avidly reading Etienne Gilson and
Jacques Maritain, and a bit of a Modernist also, enthralled with
Teilhard de Chardin and Freidrich von Hugel. Flannery believed the
divine was revealed in every-day life as well as the Sacraments. But
as an artist she chose as her ‘every-day life’ shocking examples
from the rural South that affected believers and unbelievers. Why?
Because the secular world is so oblivious to signs of the sacred it
can see only shocking, grotesque examples. Sublety is not possible
with the ‘near blind’.
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WORKS OF
FLANNERY O'CONNOR
The
Complete Stories. 1971. PB
HC
The Collected Works: Wise Blood / A
Good Man Is Hard to Find / The Violent Bear It Away / Everything
that Rises Must Converge / Essays & Letters. 1988. HC
The
Correspondence of Flannery O'Connor and the Brainard
Cheneys. Edited by
C. Ralph Stephens. 1986. HC
Everything That Rises Must
Converge.
1965 PB
HC
A Good Man
is Hard to Find. 1955. PB
HC
The Habit
of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor. Edited by Sally
Fitzgerald. 1969. PB
Introduction in A Memoir of Mary Ann by the Dominican Nuns of Our Lady of
Perpetual Help Home. 1961. HC
Mystery and
Manners: Occasional Prose. Edited by Sally Fitzgerald and Robert
Fitzgerald. 1969. PB
The
Presence of Grace, and other book reviews. Univ. of Georgia (Leo J. Zuber,
compiler; Carter W. Martin, editor), 1983. HC
Three by Flannery O'Connor (The
Violent Bear It Away, Everything That Rises Must Converge and Wise
Blood).
1983. PB
HC
The Violent Bear It
Away.
1960. PB
Wise
Blood.
1952. PB
ABOUT THE LIFE AND
WORK OF FLANNERY O'CONNOR
Asals,
Frederick. Flannery
O'Connor: The Imagination of Extremity. 1982.
Bacon, Jon
Lance. Flannery O'Connor
and Cold War Culture. 1993. HC
Balazy,
Teresa. Structural
Patterns in Flannery O'Connor's Fiction. 1982. (Printed in
Poland)??
Balee, Susan. Flannery O'Connor: Literary Prophet of the
South. 1994.
Baumgaertner, Jill P. Flannery O'Connor: A Proper Scaring. 1988. PB
Beavon, Simon W. Terrible Swift Sword : The Action of Grace in Three
Stories by Flannery O'Connor. 1994. PB
Bloom, Harold (editor). Modern Critical Views: Flannery O'Connor. 1986.
Bloom, Harold.
Flannery O'Connor :
Comprehensive Research and Study Guide. 1999 HC
Brinkmeyer, Robert H. The Art and Vision of Flannery O'Connor. 1989. PB
Browning, Preston M., Jr. Flannery O'Connor. 1974.
Cash, Jean W. Flannery O'Connor : A
Life. 2002.
HC
Clark,
Beverly L. and Friedman, Melvin J. eds. Critical essays on Flannery
O'Connor.
1985. HC
Coles,
Robert. Flannery
O'Connor's South.
1980. PB
Desmond, John. Risen Sons: Flannery O'Connor's Vision of
History.
1987. HC
Di Renzo, Anthony. American Gargoyles: Flannery O'Connor and the Medieval
Grotesque.
1993. PB
Drake, Robert. Flannery O'Connor: A Critical Essay. 1966.
Driggers,
Stephen G.; Dunn Robert J.; and Gordon, Sarah E. The Manuscripts of Flannery O'Connor at
Georgia College.
1989. HC
Driskell, Leon V. and Brittain, Joan T. The Eternal Crossroads: The Art of
Flannery O'Connor.
1971.
Eggenschwiler, David. The Christian Humanism of Flannery
O'Connor. 1972.
Enjolras, Laurence. Flannery O'Connor's Characters. 1998. HC
Farmer, David. Flannery O'Connor: A Descriptive
Bibliography.
1981.
Feeley, Kathleen. Flannery O'Connor: Voice of the
Peacock. 1972,
1982.
Fickett, Harold and Gilbert, Douglas R.
Flannery O'Connor: Images
of Grace.
1986.
Fitzgerald, Sally. 'Flannery mega-biography'(in
progress).
Friedman, Melvin J. and Clark, Beverly Lyon.
Critical Essays on
Flannery O'Connor.
1985.
Friedman, Melvin J. and Lawson, Lewis A.
(editors). The Added
Dimension: The Art and Mind of Flannery O'Connor. 1977.
Gentry, Marshall
Bruce. Flannery O'Connor's
Religion of the Grotesque. 1986.
Getz, Lorine M. Flannery O'Connor: Her Life, Library
and Book Reviews.
1980. PB
HC
Getz, Lorine M. Flannery O'Connor, Literary Theologian: The Habits and
Discipline of Being. 1999. HC
Getz, Lorine M. Nature and Grace in Flannery O'Connor's
Fiction.
1982. HC
Giannone, Richard. Flannery O'Connor and the Mystery of Love. 1989. PB
Giannone, Richard. Flannery O'Connor: Hermit Novelist. 2000. HC
Golden, Robert E. and Sullivan, Mary C. Flannery O'Connor and Caroline Gordon:
A Reference Guide.
1977.
Gordon, Sarah (editor). The Flannery O'Connor
Bulletin. Milledgeville,
GA: Georgia College & State University. (1972-present)
(JOURNAL)
Gordon Sarah (editor). Flannery O'Connor: In Celebration of
Genius. 2000. HC
Gordon, Sarah. Flannery O'Connor: The Obedient
Imagination.
2000. HC
Grimshaw, James A., Jr. The Flannery O'Connor Companion. 1981.
Hawkins, Peter S.
The Language of Grace:
Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, and Iris Murdoch. 1983.
Hendin,
Josephine. The World of
Flannery O'Connor.
1970.
Humphries, Jefferson. The Otherness Within: Gnostic Readings
in Marcel Proust, Flannery O'Connor, and Francois
Villon. 1983.
Hurley, Jennifer A., (editor). Readings on Flannery
O'Connor.
2001. PB
HC
Hyman, Stanley Edgar. Flannery O'Connor. 1966.
Johansen, Ruthann Knechel. The Narrative Secret of Flannery
O'Connor: The Trickster as Interpreter. 1994. HC
Kessler, Edward. Flannery O'Connor and the Language of
Apocalypse.
1986.
Kilcourse, George A. Flannery O'Connor's Religious
Imagination: A World With Everything Off Balance. 2001. PB
Kinney, Arthur F. Flannery O'Connor's Library: Resources of
Being. 1985.
Kreyling. Michael (editor). New Essays on Wise Blood. 1995. PB
HC
Lebeck, Sherry Lynn. Paradox Lost and Paradox Regained : An Object Relations
Analysis of Two Flannery O'Connor Mother-Child Dyads. 2000. PB
McFarland, Dorothy Tuck. Flannery O'Connor. 1976.
McKenzie, Barbara. Flannery O'Connor's
Georgia.
1980.
McMullen, Joanne Halleran. Writing Against God: Language as
Message in the Literature of Flannery O'Connor. 1996. PB
HC
Magee, Rosemary. Conversations with Flannery O'Connor. 1987. PB
HC
Magee, Rosemary M. Friendship and Sympathy: Communities of Southern Women
Writers. 1992. PB
HC
Martin, Carter W. The True Country: Themes in the Fiction of Flannery
O'Connor. 1968.
May, John R. The
Pruning Word: The Parables of Flannery O'Connor. 1976.
Montgomery,
Marion. Why Flannery
O'Connor Stayed Home. 1981.
Muller, Gilbert H. Nightmares and Visions: Flannery
O'Connor and the Catholic Grotesque. 1972.
Orvell, Miles.
Flannery O'Connor: An
Introduction.
1991. PB
Orvell, Miles. Invisible Parade: The Fiction of Flannery
O'Connor.
1972.
Paulson, Suzanne Morrow. Flannery O'Connor: A Study of the Short
Fiction. 1988. HC
Prown, Katherine Hemple. Revising Flannery O'Connor: Southern Literary Culture and
the Problem.
2001. HC
Quinn, John J., Editor. Flannery O'Connor: A Memorial. 1995. PB
HC
Ragen, Brian Abel. A
Wreck on the Road to Damascus: Innocence, Guilt, and Conversion in
Flannery O'Connor.
1989.
Rath, Sura P. and Shaw, Mary Neff. Flannery O'Connor: New
Perspectives.
1996. PB
Schloss, Carol. Flannery O'Connor's Dark Comedies: The Limits of
Inference.
1980.
Seel, Cynthia. Ritual Performance in the Fiction of Flannery
O'Connor.
2001. HC
Spivey, Ted Ray. Flannery O'Connor: The Woman, the Thinker, the
Visionary.
1995. PB
Stephens, Martha. The Question of Flannery O'Connor. 1973.
Walters,
Dorothy. Flannery
O'Connor.
1973. HC
Westarp, Karl-Heinz (compiler). Flannery O'Connor: The Growing Craft: A
Synoptic Variorium Edition of The Geranium, An Exile in the East,
Getting Home, Judgement Day. 1992. PB
Westarp, Karl Heinz and Gretlund, Jan Nordby (editors).
Realist of Distances:
Flannery 'Connor Revisited. 1987. PB
Westling, Louise. Sacred Groves and Ravaged Gardens: The Fiction of Eudora
Welty, Carson McCullars, and Flannery O'Connor. 1985.
Whitt, Margaret
Earley. Understanding
Flannery O'Connor.
1995. PB
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HUMANITY
Flannery
O’Connor appeared neat, straight-laced, cold-eyed-- not much fun.
But in fact she knew from childhood how to stretch out a joke in her
best deadpan and then shock. In a high school home economics course
Flannery O’Connor and the rest of the class were assigned a sewing
project. The expected product: clothing for the class member or a
child. Sly, expressionless Flannery would not reveal what she was
working on. She appeared to be doing little about it as the deadline
approached. The day of reckoning came. The girls displayed their
clothing on tables. Not Flannery however. She came into class
trailed by a gray bantam rooster she addressed as Colonel Eggbert.
The bird sported a lace-collared white pique coat with two buttons
on the back. Flannery felt that was sufficiently bizarre, for she
had left Colonel Eggbert’s dowdy pin-striped trousers at
home.
Were her classmates surprised? Not those who had taken
art class with her. There she had brought her gander Herman who
modeled as patiently as a goose can while Flannery immortalized him
in oil. When Herman was indisposed (he was a weird gander who liked
to hatch eggs) she brought her rooster Hailie Selassie.
[Sources: Flannery O’Connor’s ‘The King of the Birds’ in
Mystery and
Manners, 1969; Kathleen
Feeley’s Flannery
O’Connor: Voice of the Peacock , 1972, and the December 16, 1941, Peabody
Palladium]
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WARTS
Flannery
wrote mainly within the fabric of the rural south of the 1950’s. The
south was still ‘segregated’ (separate and unequal facilities for
the races). Inevitably then she wrote with a background of racial
injustice, but she also included religious hucksterism and pompous
intellectualism. Naturally questions arise as to her fairness in
dealing with these subjects. For example, did she depict
African-Americans as poor workers and devious as a device to show
the prejudice of a white bigot in the story or did it reflect in
part her own prejudice? The same can be asked of her frequent use of
derogatory slurs. Was it the artist? Or Flannery herself? Did she
skewer Protestant Fundamentalists again and again out of her
Catholic bias? Or were her outrageous religious fanatics actually
her heroes? Did she admire intellectuals or did she mock their
pride? Or both?
Are her intense stories misunderstood by
some current readers? Most certainly. In 2002 a Catholic high school
principal, speaking of her acclaimed prize-winning short story
‘Revelation’, “called the language used by O’Connor ‘offensive’ and
‘intolerant’ and said material in the story goes against everything
the Catholic church stands for – racial tolerance, compassion and
moral values.” This would seem to be an example of simple-minded
political correctness (as well as inability to fathom
literature).
Flannery once wrote that everyone she talked to
went away thinking she agreed with them, because she couldn’t
understand what they were saying and responded in vague terms. Her
fiction has the opposite effect. It is as sharp as a razor yet
because it is wrapped in Christian mystery it is misjudged by many
of all stripes: whites, African-Americans, conservatives, liberals,
the religious, the humanists. On the other hand many read her
stories angered or highly amused by the folly of groups other than
their own, never recognizing she also is hammering
them.
Should she have been more transparent in her beliefs?
Did she feel like C.S. Lewis that “any amount of theology can be
smuggled into people’s minds” through enthralling stories? And, if
so, is that fair? Or was obscurity necessary to get such material
published? Flannery O’Connor’s warts if they exist lie in the realm
of ideas. She was not vengeful. She did not indulge a temper. She
did not abuse. She wasn’t proud. She wasn’t greedy. She was in fact
frail and chronically disabled.
[Sources:
Houma Courier
. March 3, 2002;
The Habit of Being:
Letters of Flannery O’Connor , 1979, edited by Sally Fitzgerald; and Letters of C. S. Lewis
, edited by W. H.Lewis,
1966.]
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FAILURE
Flannery
O’Connor was 20 years old in 1945 when she arrived on the temperate
campus of the University of Iowa. Raised in the balmy south she
would forever think of Iowa City as a sooty tubercular place. Always
the sunny writing talent before Iowa she had been stunned there by
what she did not know, what she had not read. The other graduate
students seemed of another civilization. She did not know Kafka or
Joyce. She did not even know William Faulkner. She may have had a
degree from a southern college but here it seemed worth nothing.
Maybe she couldn’t really write well either. Was it possible she
would be denied entrance to their prestigious Writers’
Workshop?
She also learned women were seldom included in the
workshop. So with considerable fear she entered the office of Paul
Engle, distinguished poet and director of the writing program, for
an interview. He was a husky man of about 40 with a smiley
leprechaun face but Flannery was still uneasy as she sat
down.
“I’m Flannery O’Connor, Mr. Engle,” she forced herself
to say confidently. “I’m not a journalist but I’d like to enter the
Writers’ Workshop.”
Or at least that was what she thought she
had said. He blinked and stared at her uncomprehending. What had she
said?
She repeated herself.
Paul Engle gulped. No
smile now, just enormous discomfort. He didn’t understand a word. He
took a deep breath. He looked like a man suppressing a vast squirm.
“Would you write that down, Miss?”
Now Flannery could not
believe her ears. ‘Write that down?’ screamed her unbelief. Write
that down? Yes, he had actually asked her to write that down. It was
just a bit insane, right out of her favorite, Edgar Allen Poe. She
wanted to laugh. She wanted to scream. But she must not do either.
So she wrote it down.
“‘My name is Flannery O’Connor,’” he
read from her hasty note. “‘I’m not a journalist. Can I come to the
Writer’s Workshop?’”
“Yes, Mr. Engle,” she said, wondering if
that was jibberish to his ears too.
He took a deep breath.
“Bring in some your writings, Miss O’Connor,” he said. “We’ll see.”
He forced a smile on a face that had been crevassed by
smiles.
She excused herself. Her great opportunity had come
and had crushed her. Good Lord, would her writing be as
indecipherable to these northern minds as her speech?
[Sources: Robert Giroux’s Introduction in Flannery O’Connor: The Complete
Stories,
1971.]]
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DEFINING MOMENT
In
December 1950 Flannery was hospitalized for what she believed was
rheumatoid arthritis. Her treatments were injections of cortisone.
In fact the doctor had told her mother she was dying of lupus, a
disease whereby Flannery’s own immune system was attacking her own
body. To suppress the immune system would arrest lupus but make
Flannery vulnerable to other diseases. Symptoms were arthritic pain,
fever and fatigue. All this was happening as Flannery tried to
finish her first novel Wise Blood.
In February 1952, now living on her mother’s
dairy farm ‘Andalusia’, Flannery submitted the final manuscript for
publication that spring. In her copy of Carl Jung’s Modern Man in Search of a
Soul she had underlined
the passage that read “There are hardly any exceptions to the rule
that a person must pay dearly for the divine gift of creative fire.”
Oh, how she verified that ‘rule’. For that summer she learned the
true nature of her illness. Her type of lupus was a death sentence;
the same one given to her father who died of lupus at
40.
Never betraying a trace of self-pity in any of her
letters she accepted her affliction and often in great pain or
deadening fatigue continued to write her fiction. In one letter she
quipped, “Greetings from my bed of affliction.” In another she joked
about the number of blood transfusions needed for her to get going.
Yet another said two transfusions had enabled her to work but her
tongue was hanging on the typewriter keys. This light vein in her
letters about what was really an excruciating illness continued for
12 years.
(But one month before she died in August 1964 she
admitted the chilling “The wolf, I’m afraid, is inside tearing up
the place.”)
[Sources: The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor
, 1979, edited by Sally
Fitzgerald; and Kathleen Feeley’s Flannery O’Connor: Voice of the Peacock
,
1972]
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