“The
writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity
somehow meet. His problem is to find that location.”
– Flannery O'Connor
Born in Georgia in March, 1925, O’Connor
was one of America’s most important literary voices – writing 2 novels and 32
short stories, as well as a large number of reviews and commentaries in her
relatively short lifetime (she died at age 39 from cancer).
Her writing often reflected both her
regional roots and her Roman Catholic faith and frequently examined questions
of morality and ethics. “Faith,” she said, “is what someone knows to be true,
whether they believe it or not.”
Much of O'Connor's best-known
writing on religion, writing, and the South also was contained in her
voluminous correspondence with other writers and educators, and after her death
her longtime friend Sally Fitzgerald collected and published a book of them
under the title The Habit of Being. That book and other letters maintained by
Emory University remain a key part of O’Connor’s legacy.
In 1972, O’Connor’s posthumously
published Complete Stories won the National Book Award for Fiction and
has been the subject of enduring praise.
In a 2009 online poll, it was named the best book ever to have won the
prestigious award.
O’Connor said as a writer she enjoyed
“studying people” and advised young writers to always be aware of their
surroundings and the people they encountered.
“The writer should never be ashamed of staring,” she said. “There is nothing that does not require his
attention.”
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