Mary Flannery O’Connor
compiled by Jeff Warnick, Millikin University
She was born in Savannah, Georgia on March 25, 1925 during the height of the Great Depression
She was the only child of a Catholic Family
Her Father died from Lupus when she was 15
After her father died she and her mother moved to Andalusia, and lived on a quail farm owned by her uncle
She had a very religious upbringing that shows through in her novel "Wise Blood" and the short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find"
She attended St. Vincents Grammar school, and Sacred Heart Parochial School in Savannah
She went on to Georgia College and State University for Women earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1945
Next, she attended the State University of Iowa earning a Master’s of Fine Arts degree in 1947
It was at Iowa that her career took off
In 1946 at the age of 21 her short story " The Crop" was published in a national magazine
She went on to write 33 short stories and 2 novels between 1946 and 1964 for which shereceived many awards and honors
Late in 1950 she was diagnosed with Lupus
She completed 30 short stories & 2 novels while the Lupus ravaged her body
She died on August 3, 1964 at the age of 39
In almost all of her works the characters were led to a place where they had to deal with God’s presence in the world
She once said "in the long run, a people is known, not by its statements or statistics, but by the stories it tells. Fiction is the most impure and the most modest and the most human of the Arts."
Short Stories
"The Crop" February 1946
"The Geranium" Summer of 1946
"The Barber" June 1947
"The Train" June 1947
"The Turkey" June 1947
"Wildcat" June 1947
"The Heart of the Park" February 1949
"A Stroke of Good Fortune" August 1949
"The Peeler" December 1949
"Enoch and the Gorilla" April 1952
"A Good Man is Hard to Find" 1953
"The Life You Save May Be Your Own" Spring 1953
"The River" Summer 1953
"A Late Encounter With the Enemy" September 1953
"An Afternoon in the Woods" 1954
"A Circle in the Fire" Spring 1954
"A Temple of the Holy Ghost" May 1954
"The Displaced Person’s" October 1954
"The Artificial Niger" Spring 1955
"Good Country People" June 1955
"You Can’t be Any Poorer Than Dead" October 1955
"Greenleaf" Summer 1956
"A View of the Woods" Fall 1956
"The Enduring Chill" July 1958
"The Comfort of Home" Fall 1960
"The Partridge Festival" 1961
"Everything That Rises Must Converge" 1961
"The Lame Shall Enter First" Summer 1962
"Why do the Heathen Rage" July 1963
"Revelation" Spring 1964
"Parker’s Back" ?
"Judgement Day" ?
"The King of Birds" ?
Novels
"Wise Blood" 1952
"The Violent Bear it Away" 1960
Web Sites
http://www.uwstout.edu/english/peacock.htm
http://cheshire.cwrl.utexas.edu/~mmaynard/voices/oconnor.html
http://www.ils.unc.edu/flannery/biblio.htm
The Flannery O'Connor Collection:
~http://peacock.gac.peachnet.edu/~sc/foc.html
Flannery O'Connor "Waypages":
~http://www.plgrm.com/history/women/O/Flannery_OConnor.HTM
Everything That Rises Must Converge: ~http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/lit-med-db/webdocs/webdescrips/o.connor86-des-.html
The Intellectual in Selected Short Fiction of Flannery O'Connor:
~http://sunset.backbone.olemiss.edu/~jmitchel/flannery.htm
http://www2.rmcil.edu/dhaynes/hum120/oconnor/oconnor1.htm
A Selected Bibliography on Flannery O'Connor:
~http://www.it.armstrong.edu/Academia/Schools/ArtScience/LLDA/flannery/biblio.txt
The Works of Flannery O'Connor:
~ http://www.uwstout.edu/english/flanwrit.htm
Talk of the Nation:
~ http://www.real.com/contentp/npr/ne7M22.html