Flannery
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7 “My quest”: CW, 832.
8 “dance forward”: Ibid., 835.
8 “dignified ferocity”: “Notes,” CW, 1270.
CHAPTER ONE: SAVANNAH
13 “element of ham”: FOC to Maryat Lee, Ground Hog Day, 1958, HB, 265.
13 “The things we see, hear, smell”: FOC, “The Catholic Novelist in the Protestant South,” CW, 855.
14 “unsettled”: Savannah Morning News (March 25, 1925): 1.
14 “Sinner Must Be Reborn”: Ibid., 11.
15 “I never was one”: FOC to Betty Hester, December 20, 1958, HB, 309.
16 “I was brought up”: FOC to Janet McKane, July 25, 1963, HB, 531.
16 “inmates”: Hugh R. Brown, “Flannery O’Connor, The Savannah Years,” unpublished essay, 6, private collection.
17 “We had a black cook”: Patricia Persse, in discussion with the author, Septem-ber 15, 2004.
17 “I remember the square”: Dan O’Leary, in discussion with the author, Septem-ber 15, 2004.
18 “It was so Catholic”: Brown, “Savannah Years,” 5.
19 “My first memories”: Katherine Groves, “We Remember Mary
Flannery” panel, O’Connor Childhood Home, Savannah, Ga., February 4, 1990.
21 “I don’t think mine”: FOC to Betty Hester, February 25, 1956, HB, 141.
21 “Mass was first said”: FOC to Janet McKane, May 17, 1963, HB, 520.
22 “a grand pyrotechnic display”: “Looking Back: 1890,” Union-Recorder.
22 “for the northern markets”: “Thirty Years Ago in Baldwin,” Union-Recorder, March 16, 1923.
22 “Little girl, what you got”: Alice Carr, in discussion with the author, Septem-ber 25, 2004.
22 “I don’t know anybody”: FOC to Father James H. McCown, April 3, 1956, HB, 142.
23 “interesting, quiet”: undated newspaper clipping, private collection.
23 “put on his white”: Sally Fitzgerald, “The Invisible Father,” Christianity and Literature 47, no. 1 (Autumn 1997): 15.
23 “a robust, amused”: Robert Fitzgerald, “Introduction,” Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’Connor (New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux, 1965), x.
24 “The wedding will take place”: Savannah Morning News, October 8, 1922; following the marriage in Milledgeville, a Savannah wedding reception was held at the home of William Jay Harty on Gwinnett Street.
25 “There seems little doubt”: Sally Fitzgerald, “Invisible Father,” 16.
26 “’umbled”: Christopher O’Hare interview with Margaret Florencourt Mann. These interviews were conducted and transcribed by O’Hare for a Flannery O’Connor documentary that has yet to be released.
26 “beautifully cared for”: Barbara McKenzie, Flannery O’Connor’s Georgia (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1980), xvi.
27 “Roll of the Female Orphanage Society”: Brown, “Savannah Years,” 24.
27 “King of Siam”: Sally Fitzgerald, “Flannery O’Connor: Patterns of Friendship, Patterns of Love,” Georgia Review 52, no. 3 (Fall 1998): 409.
27 “Hold your head up”: Kathleen Feeley, S.S.N.D, “‘Mine Is a Comic Art . . .’ Flannery O’Connor,” Realist of Distances: Flannery O’Connor Revisited, edited by Karl-Heinz Westarp and Jan Nordby Gretlund (Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press, 1987; New Brunswick, N.J.: 1972), 67.
27 “Ed would not have put”: Sally Fitzgerald, “Invisible Father,” 10.
28 “R.C.O’C.”: Ibid., 9.
28 “All the mothers walked the little girls to school”: Brown, “Savannah Years,” 20.
29 “every day”: Sally Fitzgerald, “Invisible Father,” 16.
29 “novena-rosary tradition”: FOC to John Lynch, February 19, 1956, HB, 139.
29 “big girls”: Brown, “Savannah Years,” 9–13.
30 “I delivered”: Dan O’Leary, in discussion with the author, September 15, 2004.
30 “a pidgeon-toed”: FOC, “Biography,” GCSU.
31 “Tarso-Supernator-Proper Built”: FOC, untitled story, GCSU.
31 “some sort of corrective”: Patricia Persse, in discussion with the author, Septem-ber 15, 2004.
31 “If I took off”: “We Remember Mary Flannery” panel, November 2, 1990.
32 “I suppose my father”: FOC to Betty Hester, July 28, 1956, HB, 167–68.
32 a pencil and blue crayon: Kelly Suzanne Gerald, “Flannery O’Connor: Toward a Visual Hermeneutics” (PhD dissertation, Auburn University, 2001), 7–8.
33 “She’d stand there”: Brown, “Savannah Years,” 16.
34 “When we were”: “We Remember Mary Flannery” panel, February 11, 1990.
34 “backyard quail farm”: “Quail Farm on Peachtree,” Atlanta Constitution, Sunday edition, June 4, 1939.
34 “Nothing remarkable”: Brown, “Savannah Years,” 15.
34 “full of wire”: Unidentified fragment, GCSU.
34 “pulled the rubber bands”: Lillian Dowling Odom, “Flannery O’Connor Childhood Friend: Lost and Found,” unpublished manuscript, 3, private collection.
35 “a very innocent speller”: FOC to Ben Griffith, March 3, 1954, CW, 923.
35 “Mother, I made”: Odom, “Childhood Friend,” 19.
35 “smash an atom”: FOC, Wise Blood, working draft, GCSU.
36 “A lot of them”: FOC to Dr. T. R. Spivey, August 19, 1959, CW, 1104.
36 “taught by the sisters”: FOC to Father James H. McCown, January 12, 1958, CW, 1061.
36 “hot house innocence”: Brown, “Savannah Years,” 11.
36 “a long standing avoider”: FOC to Elizabeth Bishop, June 1, 1958, CW, 1073.
36 “From 8 to 12”: FOC to Betty Hester, January 17, 1956, CW, 983.
36 “as natural to me”: FOC to William Sessions, July 8, 1956, HB, 164.
37 “a very peculiar child”: Patricia Persse, “We Remember Mary Flannery” panel, February 3, 1990.
37 turned a child away: Sister Jude Walsh, “Armstrong State College Panel on O’Connor,” Savannah, Ga., May 1989: “Marguerite [Pinckney Knowland] told me that one day one of her playmates came with her and she came to the house with Marguerite but she was dispatched home by Mrs. O’Connor and made clear to Marguerite that she did not want her to bring any other children with her when she came to play.”
37 “Let’s Pretend”: Information on the program was taken from: Arthur Anderson, Let’s Pretend and the Golden Age of Radio (Boatsburg, Pa.: BearManor Media, 2004).
38 “How do we get”: Cynthia Zarin, “Not Nice,” The New Yorker (April 17, 2006): 38.
38 “Mrs. O’Connor was”: Newell Turner Parr, “We Remember Mary Flannery” panel, February 10, 1990.
39 “She had pages and pages”: Ibid.
39 “But then Marguerite”: Sister Jude Walsh, in discussion with the author, June 5, 2006.
39 “No one was spared”: Thea Jarvis, “Flannery — Georgia’s Own,” Atlanta Journal and Constitution, May 8, 1980. According to Kathleen Feeley, the short satiric descriptions of uncles and cousins were typed; another booklet of words and pictures was titled “Ladies and Gents, Meet the Three Mister Noseys.” Under the appropriate faces were the captions “Mr. Long Nose; Mr. Sharp Nose; Mr. Snut Nose”: Kathleen Feeley, S.S.N.D., “‘Mine Is a Comic Art . . . ,’” 67.
39 “I wrote a book”: FOC to Maryat Lee, March 9, 1960, GCSU.
40 “We heard stories”: Brown, “Savannah Years,” 18.
40 “We were a rough”: Ibid.
40 “the strictness of a certain nun”: Jean Cash, Flannery O’Connor: A Life (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2002), 16.
41 “It reminded me”: Sister Jude Walsh, in discussion with the author, June 5, 2006.
41 “They were strict”: Patricia Persse, in discussion with the author, September 15, 2004.
41 “prissy”: Sister Jude Walsh, “We Remember Mary Flannery” panel, February 11, 1990.
41 “genteel Victorian ladies”: FOC to Cudden Ward Dorrance, March 2
9, 1964, UNC.
42 “Mary Flannery was at dancing”: Odom, “Childhood Friend,” 18.
43 “He was so tall”: Kitty Smith, quoted in Alice Alexander, “The Memory of Milledgeville’s Flannery O’Connor Is Still Green,” Atlanta Journal, March 28, 1979.
43 “swept into office”: “E. F. O’Connor, Jr. Commands Legion,” Savannah Morning News, June 28, 1936.
43 “aloof”: Cash, Flannery O’Connor, 9.
43 “I am never likely to romanticize”: FOC to Betty Hester, July 28, 1956, HB, 168.
43 “More likely”: Sally Fitzgerald, “Invisible Father,” 11.
43 “He was quite an orator”: Angela Ryan Dowling, in discussion with the author, October 12, 2004.
44 “Head of Legion”: Savannah Morning News, November 11, 1936.
44 “in tones not usually”: FOC to Betty Hester, July 1956, HB, 166.
44 “Last year I read”: Ibid.
44 “My father wanted”: Ibid., July 28, 1956, HB, 168.
44 “I suppose”: Ibid., August 11, 1956, HB, 169.
45 “at that time”: FOC to Elizabeth Hardwick and Robert Lowell, March 17, 1953, CW, 909.
45 “Oh I don’t know”: Sally Fitzgerald, “Invisible Father,” 11.
45 “Tried to get in touch”: Edward O’Connor to Erwin Sibley, December 23, 1937, GCSU.
46 “When I was twelve”: FOC to Betty Hester, February 11, 1956, CW, 985.
46 “She never knew”: Newell Turner Parr, “We Remember Mary Flannery” panel, February 11, 1990.
47 “MF”: FOC, untitled story, GCSU.
47 “I know some folks”: FOC, memorabilia, GCSU.
47 “First rate”: Sally Fitzgerald, “Chronology,” CW, 1238.
48 “read those books”: MFOC to Helen Soul, undated letter, Emory.
48 “Awful”: Sally Fitzgerald, “Chronology,” CW, 1238.
48 “Peculiar but I never could”: FOC to Betty Hester, June 14, 1958, HB, 288.
48 “wasn’t a literary”: Ibid., June 28, 1956, HB, 164.
48 “was stiff already”: FOC, untitled fragment, GCSU.
49 “Can’t tell you”: Edward O’Connor to Erwin Sibley, January 4, 1938, GCSU.
49 “Cousin Katie”: FOC to Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, February 15, 1959, HB, 318.
49 “My papa”: FOC to Elizabeth Fenwick Way, August 4, 1957, HB, 233.
50 “I think you probably”: FOC to Maryat Lee, February 24, 1957, CW, 1023.
CHAPTER TWO: MILLEDGEVILLE: “A BIRD SANCTUARY”
51 “the glad news”: Nelle Womack Hines, ed., A Treasure Album of Milledgeville and Baldwin County, Georgia (Macon, Ga.: Press of J. W. Burke, 1949), 48.
52 “It was well”: FOC to George Haslam, March 2, 1957, CW, 1023.
52 “Why don’t you”: FOC to Maryat Lee, May 20, 1960, HB, 396.
52 “Mrs. E. F. O’Connor”: “Social and Society,” Union-Recorder, July 1926.
52 “Mr. and Mrs. Ed O’Connor”: “Social Highlights,” Union-Recorder, November 11, 1937.
52 “a styling epicenter”: Padgett Powell, “Andalusia Is Open,” Oxford American, (July/August 2003): 30.
52 “We have a girls’ college”: FOC to Ben Griffith, February 13, 1954, CW, 919.
53 “A thing like this”: Carson McCullers, Clock Without Hands (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1961), 217.
53 “probably has the distinction”: Hines, Treasure Album, 8.
53 “a town of columns”: Cynthia Parks, “Flannery O’Connor,” Florida Times-Union and Journal, September 2, 1984.
53 “Milledgeville Federal”: Robert J. Wilson III, “A Brief Sketch of Milledgeville,” unpublished essay, private collection.
53 “idealistic”: Ted R. Spivey, Flannery O’Connor: The Woman, the Thinker, the Visionary (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1955), 77.
53 “If war comes”: “Milledgeville: 150th Birthday,” Union-Recorder, April 1953.
54 “in public the rights”: E. A. Houston, “Tribute to Mr. Peter J. Cline,” Union-Recorder, March 7, 1916
54 “trouped through”: FOC, working draft, GCSU.
54 “an austere nun”: Betty Boyd Love, “Recollections of Flannery O’Connor,” Flannery O’Connor Bulletin 14 (1985): 65.
54 “Sister was the first”: Regina O’Connor marginal writing, Betty Boyd Love, “Recollection of Flannery O’Connor” manuscript, GCSU.
55 “Sister would always”: Dr. Peter Cline, in discussion with the author, June 11, 2006.
55 “a strong resemblance”: Love, “Recollections,” 65.
56 “Infants, girls”: Josephine Hendin, The World of Flannery O’Connor (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1972), 6.
56 “We’d have these big”: Jack Tarleton, in discussion with the author, June 10, 2006.
56 “a speaking likeness”: Christopher O’Hare interview with Sally Fitzgerald.
56 “alcoholic”: Dr. Peter Cline, in discussion with the author, June 11, 2006.
57 “Mary Flannery needs to work”: “Report of Mary Flannery O’Connor. Peabody Elementary School. 1937–1938,” GCSU.
58 “Her mother handpicked”: Jack Tarleton, in discussion with the author, June 10, 2006.
58 “gold-rimmed”: unidentified fragment, GCSU.
58 “I remember sitting”: Christopher O’Hare interview with Frances Florencourt.
58 “Oh, I’ve found Amelia Earhart”: Jean Cash, Flannery O’Connor: A Life (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2002), 45.
58 “She would bring”: Regina Sullivan, “Armstrong State College Panel on O’Connor,” Armstrong College, Savannah, Ga., May 1989.
59 “I could sew”: FOC, “The King of the Birds,” CW, 832.
59 “They played better”: Charlotte Conn Ferris, in discussion with the author, November 4, 2003.
59 “I was always interested”: Elizabeth Shreve Ryan, in discussion with the author, February 10, 2004.
59 “I think the times”: Cash, Flannery O’Connor, 47–48.
59 “We had a running”: Dr. Peter Cline, in discussion with the author, June 11, 2006.
60 “the invisible man”: Robert J. Wilson III, in discussion with the author, January 5, 2004.
60 “I remember sitting”: Frances Florencourt, in discussion with the author, December 10, 2004.
60 “To this day”: Jack Tarleton, in discussion with the author, June 10, 2006.
60 “wild horses”: Cash, Flannery O’Connor, 48.
61 “Mary Flannery spent”: Ibid.
61 “obligatory”: Ibid.
61 “garden suburb”: The description of Peachtree Heights is taken mostly from Bill Bell, A History of Peachtree Heights East to 1950 (Atlanta: Gateway Publishing, 2000).
62 “Miss Mary”: FOC to Cudden Ward Dorrance, April 9, 1964, UNC.
62 “My mother and I”: Jack Tarleton, in discussion with the author, June 10, 2006.
63 “Mary Flannery and I”: Dr. Peter Cline, in discussion with the author, June 11, 2006.
63 “She once described”: Caroline Gordon, “Heresy in Dixie,” Sewanee Review 76, no. 2 (Spring 1968): 263.
64 “Our uncle Bernard”: Dr. Peter Cline, in discussion with the author, June 11, 2006.
64 “He’s never mentioned”: FOC to Betty Hester, May 17, 1964, HB, 578.
64 “Being an ex–Bell House”: “Cupid Raids the Bell House,” Atlanta Journal Magazine (February 3, 1929): 3.
64 “Bell House was musty”: Jack Tarleton, in discussion with the author, June 10, 2006.
65 “Dr. Cline Hosts”: undated clipping from Atlanta Journal, private collection.
65 “My idea about Atlanta”: FOC to Dr. T. R. Spivey, March 12, 1964, CW, 1203.
65 “Regina and my mother”: Dr. Peter Cline, in discussion with the author, June 11, 2006.
66 “I come from”: FOC to Betty Hester, June 28, 1956, CW, 997–98.
66 “a cross between”: Preston Russell and Barbara Hines, Savannah: A History of Her People since 1733 (Savannah:
Frederic C. Beil, 1992), 158.
66 “destitute”: Susan Kessler Barnard, Buckhead: A Place for All Time (Athens, Ga.: Hill Street Press, 1996), 145.
66 “absurdist vision”: Spivey, Flannery O’Connor, 114.
66 “We met her”: FOC to Cecil Dawkins, November 8, 1960, CW, 1135.
68 “I sure am sick”: FOC to Louise Abbot, January 13, 1961, HB, 426.
69 “which Flannery sputtered”: De Vene Harrold, unpublished manuscript, GCSU.
69 “coming slow”: FOC, untitled fragment, GCSU.
70 “following a two-week”: Atlanta Journal, February 3, 1941.
70 “In recent months”: Union-Recorder, February 6, 1941.
71 “I went to the funeral”: Elizabeth Shreve Ryan, in discussion with the author, February 10, 2004.
71 “I think she did have”: Christopher O’Hare interview with Louise Abbot.
71 “I’ve never spent much time”: FOC to Betty Hester, February 11, 1956, HB, 136.
72 “The reality of death”: Sally Fitzgerald, “Rooms with a View,” Flannery O’Connor Bulletin 10 (1981): 17.
72 “I don’t know how”: Kelly Suzanne Gerald, “Flannery O’Connor: Toward a Visual Hermeneutics” (PhD dissertation, Auburn University, 2001), 11.
72 One Result: MFOC, cartoon, Peabody Palladium, October 28, 1940.
73 “single-frame satires”: Gerald, “Visual Hermeneutics,” 11.
73 “a female Ogden Nash”: Nelle Womack Hines, “Flannery O’Connor Shows Talent as Cartoonist,” Union-Recorder, June 17, 1943.
73 “His mind began to wander”: FOC, “The First Book,” GCSU.
73 “Fish oil”: FOC, “Recollections on My Future Childhood,” GCSU.
74 “the illustrations about a young”: FOC to Brainard and Frances Neel Cheney, March 13, 1957, CC, 53.
74 “the rest of what I read”: FOC to Betty Hester, August 28, 1955, HB, 98.
75 “We didn’t have a lot”: Elizabeth Hardwick, in discussion with the author, May 24, 2004.
75 “never opened it”: FOC, “Recollections,” GCSU.
75 “She wrote these books”: Deedie Sibley, in discussion with the author, May 24, 2004.
75 “M.F. has finished”: Gertrude Treanor to Agnes Florencourt, March 16, 1941, private collection.