Flannery (57 page)

184
“ran from one end”: FOC to Maryat Lee, October 9, 1962,
HB,
495.

185
“smiling perhaps”: “Editor’s Note,”
HB,
21.

185
“a shriveled old”: Ibid., 22.

185
“a state of complete”: Christopher O’Hare interview with Sally Fitzgerald.

CHAPTER SIX: THE LIFE YOU SAVE

189
“any story I reveal”: FOC to Betty Hester, September 24, 1955,
CW,
957.

189
“I know for a fact”: Robert Fitzgerald, “Introduction,”
Everything That Rises Must Converge
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1965) xiv. O’Connor assured him that the description was based on a visit to the Manhattan “cold-water flat” of her
Mademoiselle
editor, and Guggenheim recommender, George Davis. FOC to Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, February 11, 1958,
HB,
267.

190
“Borne home”: FOC to Maryat Lee, October 9, 1962,
HB,
495.

190
“full of old rain crows”: FOC to Betty Boyd Love, December 23, 1950,
CW,
888.

191
“He was a little fella”: Margaret Uhler, in discussion with the author, July 20, 2004.

191
“Internal medicine”: Dr. Zeb Burrell, in discussion with the author, October 1, 2004.

191
“Am in the hospital”: FOC to Elizabeth McKee, December 19, 1950, GCSU.

191
“Scientist Merrill”: FOC to Maryat Lee, March 27, 1962, GCSU.

191
“the Scientist”: FOC to Frances Neel Cheney, August 3, 1955,
CC,
20.

192
“I stayed there a month”: FOC to Betty Boyd Love, April 24, 1951,
HB,
24.

192
“She was already weak”: Christopher O’Hare interview with Sally Fitzgerald.

192
SLE: While women are ten times more likely to develop SLE than men, and black women three times more likely than white women, “kinship patterns” of lupus shared by family members, including father-daughter, are not uncommon. Dr. Michael Lockshin, Joan and Sanford Weill College of Medicine of Cornell University, e-mail to author, March 12, 2007.

192
“it comes and goes”: FOC to Elizabeth Hardwick and Robert Lowell, March 17, 1953,
CW,
910.

192
“I have not had the rash”: FOC to Elizabeth Fenwick Way, May 2, 1957,
HB,
217.

192
“When I was nearly dead”: FOC to Maryat Lee, August 2, 1961,
HB,
448.

193
“In ’51”: FOC to Maryat Lee, May 15, 1964,
CW,
1208.

193
“I owe my existence”: Ibid., February 11, 1958,
CW,
1063.

193
“I was an intern”: Robert Coles, in discussion with the author, January 2, 2004.

193
“moon-like”: FOC to Janet McKane, April 2, 1964,
HB,
572.

193
“I was five years writing”: FOC to Betty Hester, November 25, 1955,
CW,
970.

194
“the large doses of ACTH”: FOC to Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, September 20, 1951,
CW,
890.

194
“during this time”: FOC to Betty Hester, November 2, 1955,
CW,
970.

194
“a subtle parody”: “Frustrated Preacher,”
Newsweek
(May 19, 1952): 115.

194
“I just unfortunately”: FOC to Carl Hartman, March 2, 1954,
CW,
922.

195
“I have finished my opus”: FOC to Betty Boyd Love, April 24, 1951,
HB,
24.

195
“Me & maw”: FOC to Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, September 20, 1951,
CW,
890.

196
“You could, literally”: Robert Strozier, in discussion with the author, Septem-ber 14, 2004.

197
“Regina was very petite”: Christopher O’Hare interview with Mary Jo Thompson.

197
“With me, Flannery tended”: Jean Cash,
Flannery O’Connor: A Life
(Knoxville, University of Tennessee Press, 2002), 171.

197
“the cows are fat”: “Andalusia Farm Has Milk Production Plus a Varied Assortment of Stock,”
Union-Recorder,
June 19, 1958.

198
“Would you check”: FOC to Elizabeth McKee, April 24, 1951,
HB,
24.

198
“I thought, Wow”: Robert Giroux, in discussion with the author, November 13, 2003.

198
“mighty pleased”: FOC to Mavis McIntosh, June 8, 1951,
HB,
25.

198
“renascence”: “The aspirations for a Catholic ‘renascence’ were expressed in the journal of that title.” Paul Elie,
The Life You Save May Be Your Own
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003), 496.

198
“It is no accident”: Caroline Gordon to Brainard Cheney, December 31, 1951. Quoted in Cash,
Flannery O’Connor,
207.

198
“This girl is a real”: Sally Fitzgerald, “A Master Class: From the Correspondence of Caroline Gordon and Flannery O’Connor,”
Georgia Review
33, no. 4 (Winter 1979): 828.

199
“almost my mother”: Robert Lowell to Caroline Gordon, [n.d., fall 1945],
The Letters of Robert Lowell,
edited by Saskia Hamilton (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005), 49.

199
“She presented herself”: Kenneth Silverman, in discussion with the author, March 8, 2007.

199
“vague”: FOC to Elizabeth McKee, February 17, 1949,
CW,
880.

199
“a lady around here”: FOC to Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, September 20, 1951,
CW,
890.

199
“spending the day”: Ibid., [n.d.] “Tuesday,”
CW,
891.

199
“stout stake”: Gordon’s letter is printed in full in Sally Fitzgerald’s “A Master Class.”

200
“Johnsonian English”: Ibid., 838.

200
“All these comments”: FOC to Caroline Gordon, quoted in Ibid., 845.

201
“autobiographical”: Sally Fitzgerald, “Rooms with a View,”
Flannery O’Connor Bulletin
10 (1981): 16.

201
“freaks”: Caroline Gordon to FOC, quoted in “A Master Class,” 831: “Robert Fitzgerald reported to me something that you said that interested me very much, that your first novel was about freaks, but that your next book would be about folks.”

201
“I have twenty-one”: FOC to Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, September 20, 1951,
CW,
890.

201
“He was sort of like”: Alfred Matysiak, in discussion with the author, July 27, 2004.

201
“I have just discovered”: FOC to Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, [n.d.] “Tuesday,”
CW,
891.

202
“She always tells us”: FOC to Brainard and Frances Neel Cheney, December 15, 1953,
CC,
10–11.

202
“She says she ain’t”: FOC to Sally Fitzgerald,” [n.d. “Friday,” Summer 1953],
HB,
62.

202
“gleaned many”: Carter W. Martin, “Introduction,”
The Presence of Grace and Other Book Reviews by Flannery O’Connor
(Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1983), 3.

202
“Want to Win”:
Union-Recorder,
September 14, 1950.

202
“dashing”: “Confederate Vet to See Wife Get Degree at GSCW,”
Union-Recorder,
August 23, 1951; August 30, 1951.

203
“The local High Dining”: FOC to Maryat Lee, November 10, 1957, GCSU.

203
“It seems like the O’Connors”: Mary Jo Thompson, in discussion with the author, May 25, 2004.

203
“If it opened at twelve”: Christopher O’Hare interview with Frances Florencourt.

203
“Flannery mostly ate”: Dorrie Neligan, in discussion with the author, June 3, 2004.

203
Wise Blood:
The dedication read, simply, “For Regina.”

204
“very pretty”: FOC to Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, [n.d.] “Wednesday,”
CW,
895.

204
“distressed”: FOC to Helen Greene, May 23, 1952,
CW,
897.

205
“One reason I like”: Betsy Lochridge, “An Afternoon with Flannery O’Connor,”
Atlanta Journal and Constitution Magazine
(November 1, 1959): 40.

205
“he was a mystic”: FOC to Betty Hester, November 10, 1955,
CW,
968.

206
“that man owes a lot”: FOC to Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, [n.d.] “Saturday,”
CW,
892.

206
“I can tell you”: Christopher O’Hare interview with Robert Giroux.

206
“I was disappointed”: Robert Giroux, “Introduction,” FOC,
The Complete Stories
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1971), xii.

206
“odd”: Milton S. Byam,
Library Journal
77 (May 15, 1952): 894;
Kirkus Reviews
likewise faulted the novel’s “Capoted cosmos”: “A grotesque for the more zealous avantgardists; for others, a deep anaesthesia.”
Kirkus Reviews
19, no. 9 (May 1, 1952): 252.

206
“a writer of power”: William Goyen, “Unending Vengeance,”
New York Times Book Review
(May 18, 1952): 4.

206
“arty”: “Southern Dissonance,”
Time
(June 9, 1952): 108, 110.

206
“if the struggle”:
The New Yorker
(June 14, 1952): 106.

206
“sheer monotony”: Oliver LaFarge, “Manic Gloom,”
Saturday Review
35, no. 21 (May 24, 1952): 22.

206
“I am steeling”: FOC to Robert Giroux, May 24, 1952,
HB,
37.

207
“Flannery O’Connor, in her first”: Sylvia Stallings, “Young Writer with a Bizarre Tale to Tell,”
New York Herald Tribune Book Review
(May 18, 1952): 3.

207
“ancestral mansion”: “Frustrated Preacher,”
Newsweek
(May 19, 1952): 114.

207
“a remarkably accomplished”: John W. Simons, “A Case of Possession,”
Commonweal
56, no. 12 (June 27, 1952): 297.

207
“My mother said she”: FOC to Sally and Robert Fitzgerald,” [n.d.] “Tuesday,”
CW,
891.

207
“My current literary”: Ibid., [n.d.] “Wednesday,”
CW,
895.

208
“Mrs. Semmes went to bed”: Patricia Persse, “Armstrong State College Panel on O’Connor,” Savannah, Ga., May 1989.

208
“Wherever did she learn”: Hugh Brown, “Savannah Landmark,”
Flannery O’Connor Bulletin
18 (1989): 43.

208
“I can see her right now”: Charlotte Conn Ferris, in discussion with the author, November 4, 2003.

208
“I wish you could”: Robert Fitzgerald, “Introduction,”
Everything That Rises,
xix.

208
“I also had an 83-year-old”: FOC to John Lynch, February 19, 1956,
HB,
138.

208
“When I read her first novel”: William Schemmel, “Southern Comfort,”
Travel-Holiday
(June 1988): 72.

208–209
“I read
Wise Blood
”: Mary More Jones, in discussion with the author, May 26, 2004.

209
“I enjoyed it”: James H. McCown, “Remembering Flannery O’Connor,”
America
(September 8, 1979): 87.

209
“spotting inconsistencies”: Charles Claffy, “She Returned to Milledgeville and Then She Began Her Work,”
Boston Globe
(July 2, 1981): 2.

209
“I hope you won’t”: FOC to Robie Macauley, May 2, 1952,
HB,
35.

210
“Autograph Party”: “Autograph Party Is Planned for Miss O’Connor,”
Union-Recorder,
May 8, 1952; “Flannery O’Connor to Be Honored at Library Today,”
Union-Recorder,
May 15, 1952; “Autograph Party Given at Library for Miss O’Connor,”
Union-Recorder,
May 22, 1952.

210
“Cocktails were not served”: FOC to Betty Boyd Love, postmarked May 23, 1952,
HB,
36.

210
“most brave”: FOC to Miss Satterfield and the library staff, May 17, 1952, GCSU.

210
“I have rarely enjoyed”: Margaret Inman Meaders, “Flannery O’Connor: ‘Literary Witch,’”
Colorado Quarterly,
10, no. 4 (Spring 1962): 380.

210
“an old dame”: FOC to Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, [n.d.] “Wednesday,”
CW,
896.

211
“I have been told”: Mary Barbara Tate, “Flannery O’Connor at Home in Milledgeville,”
Studies in Literary Imagination
20, no. 2 (1987): 34.

211
“When I was through”: Robert Lowell to Flannery O’Connor,” [n.d., late May or early June 1952],
Letters,
187.

211
“now goes about enraging”: Ibid., December 1953, Iowa City,
Letters,
203.

211
“a Protestant saint”: FOC to Carl Hartman, March 2, 1954,
CW,
919.

211
“I think she left”: Andrew Lytle to Thomas H. Carter, June 24, 1952, Thomas Carter Papers, University Library, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va.

212
“I still can’t read Flannel Mouth”: Robert Lowell to FOC, March 24, [1954],
Letters,
226.