Flannery (55 page)

141
“I used to date”: Robie Macauley to Steve Wilbers, April 16, 1976, UI.

142
“We ate in a big”: Cash,
Flannery O’Connor,
100.

142
“Robie took care”: Ibid., 99.

142
“Flannery and I”: Ibid.

142
“party man . . . soul mate”: Ibid.

143
“So I reckon”: Wylder, “Flannery O’Connor,” 59.

143
“tame and friendly”: Robert Lowell to Allen Tate, March 15, 1950, Princeton.

143
“He was so sensitive”: James B. Hall, “Our Workshops Remembered,” 7.

143
“simple, austere”: FOC to Mary Virginia Harrison, “Tuesday,” GSCU.

143
“When it was gone”: Hank Messick to Stephen Wilbers, July 21, 1976, UI.

144
“right nice”: Wylder, “Flannery O’Connor,” 59.

144
“two black bears”: FOC,
Complete Stories,
90; in “The Heart of the Park,” Hazel’s last name is Weaver.

144
“completely absorbed”: Wylder, “Flannery O’Connor,” 60.

144
“two indifferent bears”: FOC to Elizabeth Hardwick and Robert Lowell, March 17, 1953,
CW.
The two lions once in City Park had reportedly been brought back from Africa by Harry Bremer, who kept them in his carriage house before giving them to the zoo: Gerald Mansheim,
Iowa City: An Illustrated History
(Norfolk, Va.: Donning Company Publishers, 1989), 164.

144
“barbarous Georgia accent”: FOC to Carl Hartman, March 2, 1954,
CW,
922.

145
“Flannery’s novel is sure”: Paul Griffiths to Paul Engle, February 16, 1948, “Papers of Paul Engle,” UI.

145
“Flannery, in spite of all”: Hansford Martin to Paul Engle, February 22, 1948, “Papers of Paul Engle,” UI.

145
“We would invite”: John Gruen, in discussion with the author, October 5, 2006.

145
“demon rewriter”: Kennedy, “A Last Conversation,”
Agni,
182.

145
“Woman on the Stairs”:
Tomorrow
8, no. 12 (August): 40–44.
Tomorrow
was published in New York by Garrett Publications between September 1941 and August 1951. Retitled “A Stroke of Good Fortune,” this story appeared in the Spring 1953 edition of
Shenandoah,
and as the fourth story in
A Good Man Is Hard to Find.

145
“She read the story”: Jane Wilson, in discussion with the author, October 5, 2006.

146
“She had this air”: Norma Hodges, in discussion with the author, May 6, 2005.

146
“a personally shy”: Austin Warren to Elizabeth Ames, February 20, 1948, Yaddo.

146
“as much promise as anyone”: Andrew Lytle to Elizabeth Ames, February 24, 1948, Yaddo.

146
“one of the best young writers”: Paul Engle to Elizabeth Ames, April 2, 1949, Yaddo.

146
“Flannery seems happiest”: Hansford Martin to Paul Engle, April 24, 1948, “Papers of Paul Engle,” UI.

146
“I’d say the description”: Wylder, “Flannery O’Connor,” 58.

146
“flat, nasal drawl”: Gene Brzenk to Jean Wylder, December 26, 1972, UI.

147
“For once there was not”: Wylder, “Flannery O’Connor,” 62.

CHAPTER FIVE: UP NORTH

148
“It did not take Georgia”: FOC to Elizabeth Ames, August 17, 1948, Yaddo.

149
“shadow”: Marjorie Peabody Waite,
Yaddo: Yesterday and Today
(Albany, N.Y.: Argus Press, 1933), 21.

149
“creating, creating, creating”: Ibid., 26.

149
“more distinguished activity”: John Cheever, statement included in the minutes of the meeting of The Corporation of Yaddo at Yaddo, September 7, 1968, Yaddo.

150
“and Flannery O’Connor”: Clifford Wright, “Diary,” June 8, 1948, Yaddo.

150
“very quiet”: Patricia Highsmith to Ronald Blythe, September 3, 1967; quoted in Andrew Wilson,
Beautiful Shadow
(New York: Bloomsbury, 2003), 141.

150
“I really think”: FOC to Cecil Dawkins, December 10, 1959,
HB,
362.

151
“She is like a well-meaning”: Robert Lowell to George Santayana, November 14, 1948,
The Letters of Robert Lowell,
edited by Saskia Hamilton (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005), 115.

151
“There was the same laughter”: Frederick Morton, in discussion with the author, November 19, 2006.

151
“ALL the time”: FOC to Paul Engle, April 7, 1949,
CW,
883.

151
“I would have been happier”: FOC to Cecil Dawkins, July 19, 1962,
HB,
483.

151
Hillside Studio: Cecil Dawkins worked in Meadow Studio, in 1962; in a letter of August 1, 1962 (ibid.), O’Connor writes to Dawkins, of her own 1948 studio, “Might well have been the one you have now”; O’Connor’s description of her studio and her letter to Dawkins indicate that her studio was not on North Farm, used in 1948; of the three possible studios on the property, including Meadow, only Hillside had a “fireplace.”

152
“a long single room”: Ibid.

152
“greenpeaish”: FOC, “The Peeler,” unpublished manuscript, 6, Yaddo. In
Wise Blood,
Enoch’s tie is “the color of green peas,”
CW,
23.

152
“In my whole time”: FOC to Betty Hester, September 21, 1957,
HB,
241.

152
“arty”: FOC to Betty Hester, August 4, 1962,
CW,
1171.

152
“At the breakfast table”: FOC to Cecil Dawkins, December 23, 1959,
CW,
1115.

153
“Miss Highsmith”: Wright, “Diary,” March 28, 1948.

153
“between those two stools”: Patricia Highsmith to Ronald Blythe, September 3, 1967; quoted in Wilson,
Beautiful Shadow,
141.

153
“in any collection”: FOC to Cecil Dawkins, December 23, 1959,
CW,
1115.

153
“Dad had been a ragpicker”: Jim Shannon, in discussion with the author, May 25, 2005.

153
“all well over forty”: FOC to Cecil Dawkins, December 23, 1959,
CW,
1114.

154
“I remember she was”: Frederick Morton, in discussion with the author, November 19, 2006.

154
“She lives by a kind”: FOC to Betty Hester, March 19, 1960,
HB,
383–84.

154
“an accomplished pianist”: Elizabeth Ames, “Paul Moor file,” Yaddo.

154
“Elizabeth McKee was”: Robert Giroux, in discussion with the author, Novem-ber 13, 2003.

154
“in my vague”: FOC to Elizabeth McKee, June 19, 1948,
HB,
5.

154
“Your work sounds very”: Elizabeth McKee to FOC, June 23, 1948, GCSU.

155
“I don’t have my novel”: FOC to Elizabeth McKee, July 13, 1948,
HB,
5.

155
“after a few weeks”: FOC to Betty Hester, August 4, 1962,
CW,
1171–72.

155
“a real Yaddo ringer”: Robert Lowell to Elizabeth Bishop, January 5, 1949,
Letters,
122.

156
“By the way”: Edward Maisel to Elizabeth Ames, “O’Connor Guest File,” Yaddo.

156
“She was completely”: Robert Giroux, in discussion with the author, Novem-ber 13, 2003.

156
“Do not make the absurd”: Jacques Maritain,
Art and Scholasticism: With Other Essays (Art et Scolastique),
translated by J. F. Scanlan (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930), 54.

156
“Then you may count on”: Elizabeth Ames to FOC, July 26, 1948, “O’Connor Guest File,” Yaddo.

156
“I have worked with much”: FOC to Elizabeth Ames, July 27, 1948, “O’Connor Guest File,” Yaddo.

156
“Dear Flannery”: Wright, “Diary,” July 30, 1948.

156
“Dear Elizabeth”: FOC to Elizabeth Ames, August 17, 1948, “O’Connor Guest File,” Yaddo.

157
“I sleep in my coffin”: FOC to Paul Engle, August 25, 1948, “Papers of Paul Engle,” UI.

157
“It’s too hot”: FOC to Elizabeth Ames, August 17, 1948, “O’Connor Guest File,” Yaddo.

157
“ancient wealthy”: FOC to Clifford Wright, August 10, 1948, Wright, “Diary.”

157
“She was a brilliant”: Frederick Morton, in discussion with the author, Novem-ber 19, 2006.

157
“My love to you”: Elizabeth Ames to Elizabeth Hardwick, November 23, 1948, “Hardwick Guest File,” Yaddo.

157
“She seems to have”: Malcolm Cowley, “O’Connor Guest File,” Yaddo.

157
“hard to like”: Newton Arvin, ibid.

158
On Native Grounds:
Published by Harcourt, Brace in 1942.

158
“a thorny mysterious return”: Alfred Kazin,
New York Jew
(New York: Vintage Books, 1979), 312.

158
“It is beautiful”: FOC to Cecil Dawkins, September 6, 1962,
CW,
1174.

158
“I cannot really believe”: FOC to Elizabeth McKee, July 21, 1948,
HB,
6.

159
“Yaddo is a sort of”: Robert Lowell to Ezra Pound, [n.d., fall 1948],
Letters,
114.

159
“pleasant”: Robert Lowell to Elizabeth Bishop, December 18, 1948,
Letters,
120.

159
“an introverted and extroverted”: Ibid., October 1, 1948,
Letters,
111.

159
“the friend of Moscow”: Malcolm Cowley,
A Century at Yaddo
(Saratoga Springs, N.Y.: Corporation of Yaddo, 2000), 18.

159
“acute and silent”: Robert Lowell to Elizabeth Bishop, [n.d., fall 1948],
Letters,
699.

159
“There’s a girl”: Robert Lowell to Caroline Gordon, [n.d. November 1948],
Letters,
116.

160
“She fell for him”: Sally Fitzgerald, “Flannery O’Connor: Patterns of Friendship, Patterns of Love,”
Georgia Review
52, no. 3 (Fall 1998): 415.

160
“I lost her”: Ibid.

160
“She wasn’t in love”: Robert Giroux, in discussion with the author, Novem-ber 13, 2003.

160
“I feel almost too much”: FOC to Betty Hester, April 21, 1956,
CW,
992.

160
“I think one of the best”: Robert Lowell to Elizabeth Bishop, January 14, 1949,
Letters,
704.

160
“I watched him that winter”: FOC to Betty Hester, April 21, 1956,
CW,
992.

160
“Christ-haunted”: FOC, “The Catholic Novelist in the Protestant South,”
CW,
861; in
Wise Blood,
O’Connor writes, of Haze, “Later he saw Jesus move from tree to tree in the back of his mind, a wild ragged figure motioning him to turn around and come off into the dark,”
CW,
11.

160
“Cal Lowell says”: Caroline Gordon to Brainard Cheney, February 4, 1953, Frances and Brainard Cheney Collection, Jean and Alexander Heard Library, Vanderbilt University, Nashville.

160
“It seems such a short time”: Robert Lowell to Elizabeth Bishop, August 10, 1964,
Letters,
452–53.

161
“She’s run through the local”: Robert Lowell to Robie Macauley, [n.d., fall 1948],
Letters,
699–700.

161
“I read it about ten”: FOC to Betty Hester, August 24, 1957,
HB,
237.

162
“habit of the practical”: Maritain,
Art and Scholasticism,
9.

162
“The pure artist”: Ibid., 13.

162
“you don’t have to be good”: FOC to Betty Hester, September 15, 1955,
CW,
955.

162
“Guggenheiming it”: Wright, “Diary,” November 19, 1948.

162
“enGuggenheimed”: Ibid., December 27, 1948.

162
“sentence by sentence”: Robert Lowell, Recommendation for Flannery O’Connor, Fiction Category, [n.d., fall 1948], Archive of the J. S. Guggenheim Foundation.

163
“I introduced him to”: Robert Lowell to T. S. Eliot, January 18, 1949,
Letters,
130.

163
“It was not gin”: FOC to Robert Lowell, December 28, 1958,
CW,
1086.

163
“high moral tone”: Wright, “Diary,” December 5, 1948.

163
“ingeniously funny”: Ibid., December 27, 1948.

163
“perfect”: Ibid., December 21, 1948.

163
“grotesque”: Ibid., January 27, 1949.

163
“My suggestion”: Robert Lowell to Elizabeth Bishop, December 8, 1948,
Letters,
120.

163
“aloud to the two”: Ibid., December 24, 1948,
Letters,
122.

163
“It would be nice”: Jean Wylder, “Flannery O’Connor, A Reminiscence and Some Letters,”
North American Review
225, no. 1 (Spring 1970): 62.

164
“please show”: FOC to Elizabeth McKee, January 20, 1949,
HB,
8.

164
“a pretty straight”: John Selby to FOC, February 16, 1949, GCSU.

164
“He too thought”: FOC to Paul Engle, April 7, 1949,
CW,
882.