Billy [Sessions], my dear girl, is not invited for any more than Thanksgiving Day. I think I made this plain to him. When he wrote that he was looking forward to seeing us Thanksgiving, I wrote back that we would expect him for Thanksgiving Day. Day is not plural. Day does not include night. He will be coming from and taking himself off to, I trust, the monastery [Conyers, Georgia].
I had a call from a priest at the Newman Club at the U. of Minnesota who said Mr. Wm. Van O’Connor had heard I would be around and they would like me to do something on the campus but had no money for it so Mr. O’C. suggested the Newman Club sponsor an appearance by me. So I am going to read there if they manage to arrange it with the sisters. I will report on any inter-resting figures I happen to meet.
Elizabeth [McKee] should try Miss Nancy at Mademoiselle or some of those places. My communications these days seem to be with Miss Minor, who is signing checks now. She must have both foot and knee in the door.
I am glad old John Leo got his inning in on Dorothy Day and interest. I think Dorothy is sometimes pretty silly, albeit I respect her in general. I liked the Philip Sharper piece; fits in very nicely with what I am thinking these days.
Cheers,
Flannery
FLANNERY O’CONNOR TO FATHER JAMES McCOWN
Father McCown hoped O’Connor would meet his friend, civil rights activist and Catholic convert, John Howard Griffin. Having darkened his skin chemically, he traveled in 1959 through the Deep South and recorded his experiences of racial injustice. Father McCown, Jacques Maritain, and others admired the pilgrimage, while O’Connor was critical. Griffin chronicled his adventures in Black Like Me, a national bestseller in 1961. The narrative contains a favorable portrait of Martin Luther King, Jr., who admired Griffin for risking his life to expose racial prejudice. In 1964, Griffin received the Pacem in Terris Award from the Davenport (Iowa) Interracial Council for his efforts to advance social justice. Walker Percy presented in The Last Gentleman a satirical character known as the “pseudo Negro” (Forney Aiken), based on Griffin. O’Connor writes McCown (October 28, 1960):
You ought to be in Georgia now for the real Militant Baptist atmosphere. Religious Liberty Requires Constant Vigilance.
If John Howard Griffin gets to Georgia again, we would be delighted to see him; but not in blackface. I don’t in the least blame any of the people who cringed [when] Griffin sat down beside them. He must have been a pretty horrible looking object.4
FLANNERY O’CONNOR TO LOUISE GOSSETT
O’Connor sends an essay to help her friend in writing a doctoral dissertation, which was later published by Duke University Press in 1965 (Violence in Modern Southern Fiction). The friend was a vital early commentator on O’Connor and wrote an informative overview of her writing in The History of Southern Literature (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1985).
NOVEMBER 13, 1960
SUNDAY
Dear Louise,
Help yourself to quoting this if you think the powers at Duke would allow such & theologically motivated job to be quoted in one of their dissertations. I wish you were nearby to talk to me about some of these points.
When you get through with this, I’d like it back as I am always losing my available copies.
Cheers to you and Tom,
FLANNERY O’CONNOR TO ROSLYN BARNES
O’Connor is part of an academic panel whose members reluctantly accept literary categorization. O’Connor recommends several works to assist in religious discernment. Such works depart from the local anti-Catholic paranoia in reaction to the 1960 presidential campaign. O’Connor also approves of her friend dropping a class because of deficient pedagogy. O’Connor, taught by Caroline Gordon, Andrew Lytle, and other traditionalist masters, did not support students critiquing the work of classmates. Such teaching of methodology elevated untutored reactions by students, while diminishing instruction by the professor, including study of the canonical figures such as Dickens, Faulkner, Joyce, and others. O’Connor maintains a clear distinction between the artistry of imaginative writing and the maudlin self-expression of some students.
MILLEDGEVILLE
14 NOVEMBER 60
I have been recuperating from the Minnesota trip [University of Minnesota] and the Wesleyan [College, Macon, Georgia] business. I beat the snows out of Minnesota which was as I intended and came home to cope with Wesleyan. They had K. A. Porter, Caroline Gordon, Madison Jones and me on a panel and nothing much was said and I supposed nothing was expected to be, but we were handsomely paid and that was nice. We mostly agreed we were Southern writers and couldn’t do a thing about it.
Caroline Gordon came home with me and spent the weekend. She is a fine stylist and has taught me a lot about writing.
I am glad you are learning something about Catholicism for whether or not you are ever able to accept the Church, you will at least not utter the idiocies against her, the like of which have been prevalent around here and elsewhere during the past campaign. Some time or other, I would advise you to read The Unity of Philosophical Experience, by Etienne Gilson; Three Reformers, by Jacques Maritain; The Disinherited Mind, by Erich Heller. I think they would give you some kind of a base to cope from.
I applaud your leaving the Contemporary Fiction course if it is nothing but student reports. You didn’t go there to listen to the opinions of students as ignorant or more so than yourself.
When you leave Iowa I want to see some of the things you have written there, but while you are under Mr. Eliott [George P.] it is better for you to get your criticism exclusively from him I should think. I doubt if I would tell you anything contradictory to what he would anyway. He is a fine writer and he must be on the track with you if he is making you rewrite. Nothing better. Whether he thinks you are good or bad makes no difference. He must think you have something or he wouldn’t insist on your rewriting. When you think a student is hopeless, you give him back his work and say, “I have nothing to suggest. This is unbelievable!” and he goes away thinking it is unbelievably good and is quite happy.
The weather here right now is like summer. The peacocks’ new tails are about halfway out and the geese are making their domestic arrangements for next year. Keep me posted. I am always interested. I was delighted you had seen Mrs. Guzeman and that the old girl is eternal. Give her my best if she remembers me.
FLANNERY O’CONNOR TO FATHER JAMES McCOWN
Having defended “bad Catholics” such as Hemingway and Joyce, O’Connor also endorses another novelist (December 4, 1960) criticized for sexual content in a novel. Identifying a deeper religious meaning, O’Connor upholds works criticized by pious readers.
Whoever was responsible for that editorial on John Updike’s novel, Rabbit Run, should be confined for a while. I suspect it was the Rev. Harold C. [Gardiner]. If you get a chance you might like to look at that book. It is true that the sex in it is laid on too heavy. It is so burdensome that you want to skip those parts from sheer boredom; but the fact is, that the book is the product of a real religious consciousness. It is the best book illustrating damnation that has come along in a great while. I would send it to you but that I lent it to Billy [Sessions]. If he returns it any time soon, I will send it to you if you are interested.
Nothing doing around here. I am shortly going into Piedmont Hospital to have my bones inspected. They are melting or leaking or getting porous or something.5
FLANNERY O’CONNOR TO ELIZABETH HESTER
O’Connor encourages her friend’s writing and is gratified that her review has been published. Among other events, she also mentions medical complications requiring hospitalization.
10 DECEMBER 60
Dear Betty,
Well I am glad you are on the track again and it seems to me to be the right one. I thought a long time ago it would be the right one, but p
erhaps now the time is right too. I often think how it looks like I should have done a lot more, been more prolific, in the years I have had; but on the other hand, the writer has to wait for the time when the subject ripens in him. I can’t be forced.
I am going to Piedmont Hospital on Tuesday and will probably be there until Friday or Saturday. Now if it is convenient, come to see me. My last x-rays were bad and it appears the same thing that is happening to the hip is happening to the jaw. So I am going to be in there for a biopsy on the bone and for them to see if there is any way to halt this process, or any way reduce its speed. My mother may come too and stay at the hotel near the hospital. She hasn’t decided, but she claims that when she isn’t around, nothing is done and she finds out nothing and money is wasted. So I suspect she will superintend my future hospital visits and wring the information out of them.
After I typed up the Sister’s manuscript, they decided there were a few more little things they ought to put in it. So I told them they could do the putting and the typing and then I would send it off. It’s really very bad [A Memoir of Mary Ann].
The Critic has sent me my proofs and a copy of the magazine with the first fiction in it. Two pedestrian sorts of stories. “The Gallant” one is very well written and pleasant but no more. The other is silly. Miss Nancy is considerable better than either. But as I read over my proofs, I didn’t think much of “The Partridge Pageant,” so I best not criticize Miss Gallant or Mr. Sullivan. A good review in there of yours. Also a letter from some reverend who says exactly the same thing you did about No Little Thing [Elizabeth Ann Cooper]. I meant to tell you that in his review of it in America, the Rev. Harold C. [Gardiner] admits he went too far in saying it was as good as Grim Grin [Graham Greene]. I say he should have thought of that in the first place and not subjected the girl to his change of opinion.
That article on Nancy Smith’s place has taken ten years off Nancy’s age, as good as the fountain of youth. She went out there that Sunday and the place was full of people wanting to go through. She started taking them in. Then later in the day, she put up a sign Admission ¢50. Many folks thought this meant 50¢ a car or family. She put on the sign 50¢ Each. The first Sunday she made $30, the second 42, the third 50 something. She sold old books for a dollar a piece. The people are still out there every Sunday.
Chrs,
Flannery
FLANNERY O’CONNOR TO ROSLYN BARNES
O’Connor approves (December 12, 1960) of her friend’s attending Mass. The Eucharist is the fundamental sacrament for spiritual inquiry about becoming a Catholic. From this spiritual anchor all other topics in the letter emanate. O’Connor also mentions one of the “Five Black Crows,” an association of priests at the St. Thomas More Parish center in Iowa City, Iowa. In 1952, Msgr. Conway began writing answers to “The Question Box” in the diocesan newspaper, The Catholic Messenger. Finally, as O’Connor faces hospitalization, her petition in her Prayer Journal, “Give me the courage to stand the pain to get the grace, Oh Lord,” is relevant to her own later suffering.6
I am glad you are going to Mass because along with study there should be no better way of finding out if you are really interested in the Church. You don’t join the Catholic Church. You become a Catholic. The study can prepare your mind but prayer and the Mass can prepare your whole personality. I wish that there were a book that you could give your parents that would prepare them for your interest because it seems to me you should at least try to cushion the blow if you are going to give them one. Perhaps they wouldn’t read it, but if you think they would, you ought to look around for a book that would create interest in them without offending them. I think Msgr. Conway [J. D.] has a book—Questions Catholics are asked about, or something [What They Ask About Marriage].7
1/5/61
I’ll do better by you than a minite [sic] check but not much. I have to put up with this nausea for about two months, had to cancel my reading at GSCW [Georgia State College for Women].
Thanks too for typing out the rosary meditations. My mind is a terrible wanderer once I start saying the rosary. Meditation must be a gift.
I saw a review of your friend Mr Elliott’s book of stories, very favorable [Among the Dangs]. I will send you a copy of The Divine Milieu, Teilhards [de Chardin] 2nd book, if you would like it. I got two for Christmas. Let me know.
Cheers,
FLANNERY O’CONNOR TO FATHER JAMES McCOWN
The foundational sacrament of the Eucharist and its relation to suffering is once again emphasized. O’Connor gives thanks. Other apologists testify to its efficacy, such as Father Henri Nouwen. He notes, “The Eucharist is the central Sacrament of the Church. It is the place through which God really enters into our lives.”8
MILLEDGEVILLE
22 JANUARY 61
Thanks for all the needed information and thanks for saying that Mass for me. I think I am doing all right what with all the prayers I am getting.
That introduction I was telling you about is going to be in the April Jubilee now, they tell me [“Introduction,” A Memoir of Mary Ann, Jubilee, May 1961]. It is an introduction to a book written by the Sisters at the cancer home in Atlanta and I just got word from my publisher today that they will publish the book. It was so badly written that I thought I’d never find a publisher for it, but Farrer, Straus and Cudahy took it right off. I bet the Sisters a pair of peafowl that nobody would buy it so I am out a pair of peafowl.
I would like to get my hands on a book about moral theology.
I’d like to look at the lady’s book if she finishes it.
2/23/61
Thanks so much for Bernanos [Georges]. That is one of my favorite books and I am delighted to have a copy of my own. I read it years ago out of the SUI liberry.
We entertained the photographer from Holiday for two days last week. He took over 150 pictures of the peachickens and they think they are up for the academy award. The piece will be in the June issue [“Living With a Peacock,” September 1961].
I suppose some one has sent you the editorial for the high school guests out of the Colonade. The writer ran away with herself. “The happiest day in your college career will be the day you walk down the aisle and receive your pigskin.”
FLANNERY O’CONNOR TO ELIZABETH HESTER
O’Connor shares literary opinions with a fellow woman of letters who still remains obscure. O’Connor dislikes critical theory applied to her fiction. William Sessions has also written a play about Francis Marion, hero of the American Revolution. Mel Gibson in “The Patriot” (2005) plays Benjamin Martin, a character based on Marion. O’Connor, also in a rare observation, notes the limitations of her beloved teacher.
MILLEDGEVILLE
4 MARCH 61
Dear Betty,
I have been this week prone upon my couch, a victim of the common cold. So I advise you to burn up this letter after you read it and wash your hands as I am still coughing and spitting and blowing and filling up the trash cans with kleenex.
I guess you are right about Hawkes [John] and his critical powers and I think that probably most creative people have only sporadic critical insights. Hawkes for instance informed me that he thought the sheriff’s view at the end of the story was the literal one; at least he asked me if it wasn’t. I suppose this comes from always looking at everything from Freud’s point of view. The poor devils think that is ALL, at least where fiction is concerned. I sent you an essay he sent of some criticism of his friend’s poetry. He said that if there was theology in it, he supposed it was very peculiar theology. From reading it, I should say it was modern-ordinary.
I don’t think Billy was consulting Walker Percy for his health—just as one literary Catholic-convert gentleman to another, etc. He has honored me with two communications lately, the last announcing that he is working
on his Swamp Fox play and will have it ready in a couple of weeks for me & thee to look at. It appears that I am directly responsible for this one, having told him he might ought to try something with a historical basis to help control his imagination. I thought that would at least keep the rich bitches out of it. Anyway we shall see.
I read one story of Walter Clemens once but I didn’t think it was anything extra. Never read Humphrey. Read Cicero a while back but I suppose I ought to do it again. Peter Taylor is pleasant though I’ll admit not exactly soul-shattering. I think Powers [J. F.] is the better of the two because he has something better to write about and is funny. He don’t write about lonely man. They are both you might say writers of manners rather than of the demonic. The great ones like Dostoievsky combine the two. I suppose Proust is the master of the manners branch. I can see no other dimension in RTP. Manners are negligible in your friend Emily Bronte, negligible in Hawkes, negligible in me.
Everytime I think how Caroline [Gordon] would have had me change the introductory paragraph of the Introduction I see anew her limitations. She will sacrifice life to dead form, or anything to grammar. That sentence: “What is written to edify usually ends by amusing” is perfectly all right. The “us” is implied and need not be put in, as you might say, “that does not soothe, that does not please,” etc. I asked Sr. Bernetta [Quinn] about it and she said I was right.
Atheneum has just sent me Louis Rubin’s novel to say something about [The Golden Weather]. It is one of those “growing up with” Louie things and deadly dull so far. I don’t know what I am going to say about it because I can’t hurt his feelings. The trials of politeness.
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