Good morning. It's Saturday, Oct. 18, and we're bringing you the latest Society & Culture newsletter. Every week, we provide fascinating deep dives into the worlds of art, music, literature, film, food, sports, entertainment, and more.
This week, we're covering Flannery O'Connor, the American writer, whose story collection "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" was released 70 years ago. We figured October was the perfect time to explore her haunted body of work.
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—Kevin Kearney, 1440 Society & Culture Section Editor |
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Background
Flannery O’Connor was a 20th-century American writer primarily known for her short stories and novels. Her fiction is often called Southern Gothic, though O’Connor preferred the term “grotesque” to describe the darkly humorous portraits of deformed characters navigating faith and judgment. (Listen to O’Connor reading one of her stories.)
O’Connor wrote 31 short stories and two novels. She was awarded three O. Henry Awards, the most prestigious honor for a short story writer. In 1972, she was posthumously awarded the National Book Award for her “Collected Stories.”
Good Country People
O’Connor was born Mary Flannery O’Connor in Savannah, Georgia, in 1925. At age 5, she had a chicken that walked backward, which eventually attracted the attention of British Pathé, an international news program. (Watch the clip here.)
In college, O’Connor began going by her middle name, Flannery, and worked as a cartoonist for the school newspaper and literary magazine, using surreal black-and-white linoleum prints to comment on everything from student life to World War II.
The Life You Save May Be Your Own
In 1945, she enrolled in a graduate program in journalism at the University of Iowa, intending to pursue cartooning, but quickly transferred to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop to focus on creative writing. Her master’s thesis was a collection of short stories called “The Geranium.” (Read the original version of the titular story here.)
After Iowa, O’Connor spent time at Yaddo, an artist colony in New York, and then moved to Connecticut to stay in the garage apartment of Sally and Robert Fitzgerald—the legendary translator of Homer, Sophocles, and other classics—while working on her first novel, “Wise Blood.” Like O’Connor, the Fitzgeralds were devout Catholics, and O'Connor attended mass with them every morning.
In 1950, O’Connor began feeling ill and was diagnosed with lupus, the same disease that killed her father when she was just 15. After the diagnosis, O’Connor and her mother moved to Andalusia, the family farm north of Milledgeville, Georgia.
As 1955’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and 1960’s “The Violent Bear It Away” garnered critical acclaim, O’Connor remained at Andalusia, where she focused on writing, corresponded with friends, and raised 40 peacocks. She died at 39 in 1964.
The Violent Bear It Away
O’Connor’s stories often feature Southern outcasts thrust into bizarre situations. The Deep South is presented as a shadowy place, filled with scheming figures posing as upstanding citizens and smug intellectuals receiving their comeuppances.
Because it’s frequently dark, foreboding, and violent, her work is sometimes called Southern Gothic. O’Connor disagreed with that characterization, arguing it was usually foisted on her work by Northern readers intent on pigeonholing. (Listen to an O’Connor lecture about Southern fiction.)
O’Connor’s faith also informed her writing. Prophets, preachers, and vocal nonbelievers often clashed in her fiction, with strange stories that explored the ways the “Christ-haunted” South was reckoning with its legacies of slavery and segregation.
Everything That Rises Must Converge
O’Connor’s work has influenced other major American writers (like Alice Walker and Cormac McCarthy), filmmakers (like Quentin Tarantino and the Coen Brothers), and musicians (like Bruce Springsteen).
While her private views on race have led some to discount her writing, O’Connor’s work is still widely taught in high school and college classrooms, with many critics contending that she is among the greatest American writers. |
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Explore Flannery O'Connor |
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A Yale professor’s take on O’Connor’s ‘Wise Blood’ |
O’Connor’s first novel is about Hazel Motes, a World War II veteran who returns home and sets out to form an anti-religious congregation. It’s a striking debut and one that Yale professor Amy Hungerford taught in her course “The American Novel Since 1945.” Watch her lecture on the book here. |
Regina O’Connor’s impact on her daughter’s fiction |
O’Connor’s stories are filled with nagging mothers and clueless older women. Many believe they’re inspired by Regina O’Connor, the author’s mother, who was her roommate for the last stretch of her life. This deep dive suggests that it may be true, but that their relationship was sunnier than O’Connor might’ve let on. Read it here. |
An interview with O’Connor’s chief biographer |
Brad Gooch’s 2009 book “Flannery” was the first major biography of the writer. In this interview with the “Bookworm” podcast, Gooch explains his difficulty writing about such a legendary figure. Listen to it here. |
Emma Jackson, the overlooked caretaker of O’Connor |
Although O’Connor only mentioned Jackson, a middle-aged Black woman who was hired as a caretaker for a young Flannery, in one unpublished story, one O’Connor admirer went deep to learn more about the woman, who likely had a major impact on the writer’s worldview. Read it here. |
Flannery O’Connor’s recommended reading |
O’Connor was a rabid reader and a prolific letter writer, often suggesting (and sometimes criticizing) books to friends and admirers. This list distills those recommendations into a compact list, with praise for Henry James, Edgar Allen Poe, and National Geographic. It’s not only a good reading list; it’s a fascinating window into O’Connor’s influences. Read it here. |
The woman behind ‘A,’ O’Connor’s anonymous pen pal |
When O’Connor’s private letters were released in “The Habit of Being,” many readers wondered about the identity of “A,” with whom O’Connor shared many lengthy, intimate correspondences. Decades later, “A” was revealed to be Betty Hester, a reclusive file clerk. This profile gets at the heart of their relationship and how it informed O’Connor’s work. Read it here. |
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Beyond our weekly deep dives, we love finding great takes on the culture currently shaping our lives. Here are some of the best reactions, profiles, and think pieces we encountered this week.
> Diane Keaton Was Effortlessly Original
The Ringer | Brian Phillips. Keaton, who died last Saturday, left behind an impressive filmography, but Phillips argues that her legacy also extends to her confident, carefree persona, which flew in the face of celebrity culture and Hollywood pretense. (Read)
> In the Time of D'Angelo
Pitchfork | Marcus J. Moore. The acclaimed and enigmatic musician died Tuesday, leaving behind a massively influential body of work. Moore explains how D'Angelo's career was unparalleled, blending Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, Curtis Mayfield, and Prince to create an adventurous and innovative sound. (Read)
> You Have No Idea How Hard It Is To Be a Reenactor
The Atlantic | Caity Weaver. The writer delves headfirst into the world of Revolutionary War reenactors, embedding with a troop of Green Mountain Boys and a legion of Bunker Hill combatants. It's a fascinating and often hilarious read that unpacks why the past is so attractive to so many in the present. (Read)
> Is 'Going Viral' Dead?
NY Times | Madison Malone Kircher. "Chewbacca mom," "BBC dad," and "the dress" were pop culture flashpoints in the mid-2010s, thanks to a media ecosystem tailor-made for shared online experiences. Kircher analyzes how the rise of the algorithm and its hyper-personalized feeds has all but eliminated the phenomenon. (Read)
> Queen of Darts
Victory Journal | Amos Barshad. Darts may seem like a low-key hobby, but the Dutch Open, the sport's biggest tournament, turns it into a massive spectacle. Barshad profiles the rivalry between the two top women, revealing how their backstories turn a simple game into a consequential match. (Read) |
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“Fiction is about everything human and we are made out of dust, and if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn’t try to write fiction. It’s not a grand enough job for you.” |
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