O’Connor despised romantic portrayals of the South

O’Connor’s stories feature Southern outcasts thrust into bizarre situations

The Deep South is presented as a shadowy place, filled with scheming figures posing as upstanding citizens, like the conniving door-to-door Bible salesman of “Good Country People,” and smug intellectuals receiving their comeuppances, like the condescending college graduate of “Everything That Rises Must Converge.”

Flannery O’Connor believed the South was ‘Christ-haunted’

O’Connor was a lifelong Catholic who spent most of her life in the Protestant Bible Belt, the setting for nearly all her fiction often infused with Catholic themes. “I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted,” she wrote.

O’Connor was shaped by her time with Sally and Robert Fitzgerald

After Iowa, O’Connor 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 the three attended mass every morning.

Alice Walker admired Flannery O’Connor for her honest portrayal of the South

Walker wrote “The Color Purple,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making her the first Black woman to win the award. In her essay “A South Without Myths,” she calls O’Connor “the first great modern writer from the South,” particularly because her work abandoned nostalgia for the antebellum world.

O’Connor’s caretaker Emma Jackson had an early impact on her views

Flannery O'Connor had conflicting views on race. She criticized racism and mocked segregationists, yet made racist jokes. Scholars recently unearthed details from the O’Connor archive about Emma Jackson, a Black woman hired young Flannery's caretaker. O'Connor recounted learning about racism after being scolded for spending too much time with Jackson.

Watch 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.”

O'Connor believed grotesque fiction was realistic

O'Connor argued that although the style might not be recognizable to all readers, "the grotesque" attempts to reckon with life's inherent mystery. "Of course, I have found that anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the Northern reader," she said, "unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic."

O’Connor shared lengthy, intimate letters with Betty Hester, a recluse

When O’Connor’s private letters were released in “The Habit of Being,” readers wondered about the identity of “A,” who had an intimate (possibly romantic) relationship with the writer. Decades later, “A” was revealed to be Betty Hester, a reclusive file clerk. Scholars still debate whether the two were romantically involved.

In 2020, Loyola University Maryland removed O’Connor’s name from a dormitory

The decision was made after a student petition, citing private letters using racial epithets. Hundreds of writers and academics wrote an open letter criticizing the move, including novelist Alice Walker, who said, “We must honor Flannery for growing. Hide nothing of what she was, and use that to teach.”

After being diagnosed with lupus, O'Connor moved to her family's Georgia farm

In 1950, O'Connor began feeling ill and returned to Georgia, where she was diagnosed with lupus, the same disease that killed her father when O'Connor was just 15. After the diagnosis, O'Connor and her mother moved to Andalusia, the family farm north of Milledgeville, Georgia.

After Flannery O'Connor's death, the writer's mother insisted her daughter be buried with a smile on her face.

Flannery O’Connor is a major figure in American literature

In her lifetime, 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.”

Bruce Springsteen's 'Nebraska' was influenced by writer Flannery O'Connor

Springsteen became obsessed with the "Southern gothic" writer when he began working on the songs for "Nebraska," inspired by O'Connor's tragic characters and grotesque imagery.

A film crew captured a 5-year-old Flannery O’Connor and her talented chicken

British Pathé, an international news program, ventured out to Georgia to film O’Connor (then known by her given name, Mary) and her chicken, whom she’d taught to walk backward. O’Connor would later joke that it was the highlight of her life.

O’Keeffe discredited sexual interpretations of her flower paintings

In 1943, the artist famously explained her intention to call attention to flowers by making them large and detailed. O’Keeffe added that while she wanted people to notice her flowers, they ended up projecting their own associations that didn’t reflect her own ideas.

Poet Robert Lowell encouraged O'Connor to turn away from commercial appeal

When O'Connor secured a publisher for "Wise Blood," her publisher envisioned it as a broad, commercial comedy, something Lowell—the accomplished poet whom she met after graduate school at Yaddo, an artist colony in upstate New York—suggested she avoid, encouraging her to lean into her more esoteric and darker interests. This interview with O'Connor biographer Brad Gooch elaborates on that advice.

In Iowa, Flannery O'Connor decided to pursue creative writing

O’Connor enrolled in a master’s program in journalism at the University of Iowa, intending to pursue political cartooning, but quickly switched to creative writing. Her thesis was a collection of stories called “The Geranium.” The title story was eventually her first published piece.

O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became symbols for her fiction

O'Connor was drawn to peacocks because of their dichotomy—people were drawn to the beauty of their feathers but turned off by the ugliness of their behavior. It was an apt symbol for her fiction and the birds featured prominently on several of her books' covers.

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, praising Henry James, Edgar Allan Poe, and National Geographic. It’s a good reading list and a fascinating window into O’Connor’s influences.

Flannery O'Connor originally wanted to be a cartoonist

In college, the famed writer 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.

Silent film star Buster Keaton tried to turn the Civil War into a comedy with the 1926 film 'The General,' which was panned by critics for its pro-Confederate themes and tone-deaf treatment of war.

O’Keeffe was part of a movement of American artists changing previous norms

One of the most recognizable names of the American modernism movement from the early 1900s, O’Keeffe’s portrayals of nature strayed from realism and prioritized emotional truth, using elements like bold colors and abstract shapes to capture the feeling of observing her subjects.

Listen to Flannery O'Connor read her story 'A Good Man Is Hard To Find'

"A Good Man Is Hard To Find," published in 1953, is O'Connor's most well-known story—and the most representative of her style and themes. This recording, from a 1959 appearance at Vanderbilt University, features the author reading to a live audience.

A selection of author Flannery O'Connor's witty letters

Flannery O'Connor wrote darkly humorous novels while cultivating a richly devout Catholic faith. One of the most renowned American authors of the 20th century, she also wrote many letters in a very charming and witty style. Read a selection of her best epistles here.

Listen to the experiences of an art historian who met Georgia O'Keeffe

Wanda M. Corn wrote the biography "Georgia O'Keeffe: Living Modern" and recounts her experience interviewing the artist in New Mexico. Hear interesting details from an O'Keeffe expert, including specifics about her clothes, her home and her upbringing.

O’Keeffe’s relationship with a younger Juan Hamilton caused controversy

Juan Hamilton was broke, divorced and 27 years old when he met an 85-year-old O’Keeffe to ask for a job. She eventually gave him one, and they developed a close friendship and artistic partnership, while also fueling rumors of a romantic relationship. After she died, he received her house and a large portion of her estate.

Twain ruthlessly criticized other writers

The writer was known for lambasting popular writers of his time, including Jane Austen and Robert Louis Stevenson. One of his most famous takedowns is “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences,” an essay that simultaneously mocks Cooper’s popular adventure tales and satirizes the pretentiousness of literary criticism. Remarking on Cooper’s novel “The Deerslayer,” Twain wrote, “its conversations are—oh! Indescribable; its love-scenes odious; its English a crime against the language.”

Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings are often assumed to be sexual, though the artist claimed she was simply interested in highlighting the beauty of flowers that most people neglect.

'Ram’s Head, White Hollyhock—Hills' marked a shift in O’Keeffe’s life and work

After a severe drought in the 1930s killed many animals near her home, O’Keeffe started collecting and painting their skulls. Her new style was interpreted as surreal and even macabre by many, presenting a shocking turn from her lighthearted flower portraits.

Joyce Carol Oates praised King's working-class characters

Joyce Carol Oates is a writer who, like Stephen King, has a massive body of work that moves between styles and genres. Unlike King, she was never derided by critics as being overly commercial. Introducing King at Princeton University in 1997 and 2016, she made the case for King as a serious American writer in the Gothic tradition of Edgar Allan Poe.

How Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman grappled with the American Civil War

Whitman, whose brother was injured while fighting for the Union, was often overt in his pro-Union poems. Dickinson, whose brother paid to have someone enlist under his name, was more subtle, though equally as affected, as this comparative analysis makes clear.

Watch 'Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse,' the documentary about Francis Ford Coppola's notorious production behind 'Apocalypse Now,' shot by Coppola's wife, Eleanor.

Georgia O’Keeffe is one of the most significant modern artists in American history

Known for her distinct style and outsider persona, O’Keeffe is a key figure in US art history and one of the few female artists to have a dedicated museum. Read her biography to learn more about how her rural upbringing led to her eventual worldwide fame.

Georgia O'Keeffe and her sisters had an artistic rivalry

Despite their close relationship, a rift between the siblings emerged after Ida and Catherine, Georgia's younger sisters, began exhibiting their own paintings. Some also speculate that their dynamic was influenced by Georgia's husband, Alfred Stieglitz, who expressed romantic interest in Ida.

Although it's now considered a pivotal film in the history of American cinema, 'The Wizard of Oz' was initially panned by some of its contemporary critics.

The woman in Dorothea Lange's 'Migrant Mother' photo felt that she and her children had been exploited.

In 1949, O’Keeffe moved to the tiny desert village of Abiquiu, New Mexico

After nearly 15 years of trying to buy an idyllic hacienda from the church, she succeeded and moved in in 1949. The three-acre property featured a view of the Chama River Valley, which inspired many of her paintings.

Country musicians grappled with the outlaw archetype on screen

As country grew more popular, some of its biggest stars leapt to the silver screen, with Johnny Cash in "Five Minutes to Live," Kris Kristofferson in "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid," and Dolly Parton in "9 to 5." Kristin Hunt notes that all of these films featured country stars toying with the outlaw archetype, a prevalent theme throughout the history of country music.

Explore Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings of New York

While the artist is most commonly associated with painting natural landscapes, specifically in the American Southwest, O’Keeffe also captured the industrial world while living in New York City. Her time in New York played a crucial role in establishing her reputation in the art world.

Many critics dismissed Norman Rockwell as overly sentimental

The painter’s portraits of American life were often dismissed as commercially minded, banal, or kitschy, especially when compared with the more abstract art of the time. Rockwell, however, was undeterred, commenting that he wanted to produce work that would make viewers “want to sigh and smile at the same time.”

Hear how the world reacted to the American Civil War

European nations closely watched the Civil War for its economic and political consequences. Some European nations quietly engaged diplomatically with the Confederacy but withheld recognition. When the Union made slavery's abolition a central cause, European public opinion turned sharply against the South.

Georgia O'Keeffe's subjects evolved based on the landscapes she lived in

Texas horizons, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico deserts are examples of the subjects O'Keeffe famously painted over the course of her life. While her style remained mostly consistent throughout her seven-decade career, her surroundings significantly changed the content of her artwork.

Eugene O'Neill is the lone American playwright to win the Nobel Prize

The writer was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1936, with the prize committee noting "the power, honesty, and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy."

The Coen brothers imagined 'O Brother Where Art Thou?' as a retelling of 'The Odyssey,' though neither had actually read Homer's epic.

What made Mary Cassatt's art radical

Although the American Impressionist's work is sometimes dismissed as overly sentimental, these Cassatt specialists argue that her portrayals of women are often subtly subversive, emphasizing how they defy the gender norms of the time.

O’Keeffe’s journey to become an artist started at a young age in Wisconsin

In 1905, she left behind her life on the farm to attend art school in Chicago. While studying, the artist won the William Merritt Chase prize for a still life. Her style eventually evolved and caught the attention of important figures in the New York art scene.

O’Keeffe’s first collection of charcoal drawings was influenced by Japanese artists

Prioritizing personal interpretations over literal ones, O’Keeffe’s abstract drawings challenged the classical approach to capturing nature in art. This initial set of drawings caught the attention of art dealer Alfred Stieglitz and forever changed the trajectory of her career.

Some Harlem Renaissance figures criticized Zora Neale Hurston's most famous novel when it was released

Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God" is now considered one of the masterpieces of the Harlem Renaissance, though some in the movement criticized it when it was released in 1937. Both Alain Locke and the writer Richard Wright felt that Hurston's novel lacked depth. Wright was particularly harsh, writing that "her novel carries no theme, no message, no thought. In the main, her novel is not addressed to the Negro, but to a white audience whose chauvinistic tastes she knows how to satisfy."

'Bonnie and Clyde,' the 1967 film starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, was the first major American movie to feature graphic violence.

Director Arthur Penn used the then-new Squibb technology, which triggered realistic and bloody bullet wounds, to portray graphic violence, at the time a taboo in American cinema.

Dorothea Lange's iconic 'Migrant Mother' photo was just one image of many she captured of the woman with her children.