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Flannery O'Connor Facts

Flannery O'Connor Facts
Flannery O'Connor was an American, Southern author and essayist considered to be one of the 20th century's best short story writers. She was born Mary Flannery O'Connor on March 25th, 1925, in Savannah, Georgia to Edward F. O'Connor, a real estate agent, and Regina Cline. When she was a teenager her father became ill with systemic lupus erythematosus and died. Flannery graduated from Peabody Laboratory School in 1942, from Georgia State College for Women in 1945, and then attended the University of Iowa's journalism program. Flannery O'Connor's first published short story was "The Geranium" in 1946.
Interesting Flannery O'Connor Facts:
Flannery O'Connor graduated from the University of Iowa in 1947 and spent several months at a Saratoga Springs artists' retreat named Yaddo.
Flannery O'Connor's work often included a religious theme, based upon her experiences growing up as a Catholic. Ethics and morality and race were also common themes in her work.
Flannery O'Connor accepted an invitation to stay with a classic translator Robert Fitzgerald and his wife in 1949, in Connecticut.
In 1951 Flannery O'Connor was diagnosed with the same illness that eventually killed her father - systemic lupus erythematosus. With this diagnosis she returned to her family farm in Georgia.
Despite her diagnosis and prediction that she would only life for five years, Flannery O'Connor continued to write. She lived for fourteen more years.
Flannery O'Connor wrote and published two novels Wise Blood (1952), and The Violent Bear It Away (1960).
Flannery O'Connor short story collections include A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories (1955), Three by Flannery O'Connor (1962), Everything That Rises Must Converge (1965), The Complete Stories (1971), and Flannery O'Connor: Collected Works (1988).
Flannery O'Connor wrote non-fiction works and letters that have been published after her death including Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose (1969), The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor (1979), The Presence of Grace and Other Book Reviews by Flannery O'Connor (1983), The Correspondence of Flannery O'Connor and the Brainard Cheneys (1986), Conversations with Flannery O'Connor (1987), and The Manuscripts of Flannery O'Connor at Georgia College (1989).
Flannery O'Connor wrote many short stories, most of which were published during her lifetime including her first, The Geranium, and then The Barber, Wildcat, The Crop, The Turkey, The Train, The Peeler, The Heart of the Park, and many, many more.
In total Flannery O'Connor wrote two novels, several collections, and 31 short stories. She also wrote more than 100 book reviews for Catholic newspapers in Georgia.
Flannery O'Connor died on August 3rd, 1964. She was 39 years old. She never married or had any children.
The University of Georgia Press established the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction in honor of Flannery, and it is given out each year for an outstanding short story collection.
Flannery O'Connor was the first fiction writer to be born in the 1900s that the Library of America collected and published.
Flannery O'Connor was awarded the O. Henry Award in 1957.
Flannery O'Connor was awarded the National Book Award for Fiction posthumously in 1972 for Complete Stories.


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