Flannery O'Connor

Mary Flannery O'Connor (March 25, 1925 – August 3, 1964) was an American author. She was born in Savannah, Georgia.

Biography

Her father, Edward O'Connor, was diagnosed with lupus in 1937; he died on the first of February, 1941. Mary Flannery, the couple's only child, was devastated, and rarely spoke of him in later years. Flannery described herself as a "pigeon-toed only child with a receding chin and a you-leave-me-alone-or-I'll-bite-you complex."

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As a child she was in the local newspapers when a chicken that she owned could walk backwards. She said, "That was the most exciting thing that ever happened to me. It's all been downhill from there."

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Ms. O'Connor attended Peabody High School, from which she graduated in 1942. She entered Georgia State College for Women (now Georgia College & State University), where she majored in English and Sociology, the latter a perspective she satirized effectively in novels such as The Violent Bear It Away.

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In 1946 Flannery O'Connor was accepted into the prestigious Iowa Writer's Workshop.

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In 1949 O'Connor met and eventually accepted an invitation to stay with Robert Fitzgerald (translator of Greek epic plays and poems, including Oedipus Rex and both the Odyssey and the Iliad) and his wife, Sally, in rural Connecticut.

Related Topics:
Robert Fitzgerald - Oedipus Rex - Odyssey - Iliad - Connecticut

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In 1951 she was diagnosed with lupus. She died August 3, 1964 at Baldwin County Hospital and was buried in Milledgeville, Georgia.

Related Topics:
1951 - Lupus - Milledgeville, Georgia

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O'Connor lived on a large farm named Andalusia, where she raised and nurtured some 100 peacocks, and images of peacocks are often found on her books. She was obsessed with birds of all kinds and raised ducks, hens, geese, and any sort of exotic bird she could obtain.

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Despite the fact that she had no known love affairs and lived a rather sheltered life, her writing reveals an almost uncanny grasp of the nuances of human behavior. However, there is some controversy regarding her sexuality. A few critics have interpreted The Habit of Being as containing hints of a possible lesbian relationship; others suggest this is wishful thinking on the part of historical revisionists.

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The Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, named in honor of O'Connor, is a prize given annually to an outstanding collection of short stories.

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