Flannery (60 page)

264
“Malcolm was very polite”: FOC to Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, June 10, 1955,
CW,
940.

264
“about the best book”: Caroline Gordon to Andrew and Eleanor Lytle, June 15, 1955. Quoted in Waldron,
Close Connections,
321.

264
“She felt left out”: Caroline Gordon to Allen Tate, St. Stephen’s Day, 1955. Quoted in Waldron,
Close Connections,
322.

264
“Dear Ferocious”: FOC to Catharine Carver, June 9, 1955, GCSU.

264
“I think I am about as ferocious”: FOC to Fred Darsey, June 8, 1955, Emory.

264
“I am fast getting a reputation”: FOC to Erik Langkjaer, May 23, 1955,
CW,
936.

265
“to a high rank”: Orville Prescott,
New York Times,
June 10, 1955.

265
“the artful brevity”: Caroline Gordon, “With a Glitter of Evil,”
New York Times Book Review
(June 12, 1955): 5.

265
“there is brutality”:
The New Yorker
(June 18, 1955): 93.

265
“Did you see the nice”: FOC to Catharine Carver, June 27, 1955,
HB,
88.

265
“was terrible, nearly gave me”: FOC to Ben Griffith, July 9, 1955,
CW,
941.

265
“highly unladylike”: “Such Nice People,”
Time
(June 6, 1955): 114.

266
“horrible pictures of me”: FOC to Betty Hester, August 17, 1963,
HB,
534.

266
“unusual reticence”: Sylvia Stallings,
New York Herald Tribune Book Review
(June 5, 1955): 1.

266
“The effect, though ‘glamorous’”: Ashley Brown,
Realist of Distances,
20.

266
“You should see Hazel Motes”: FOC to Frances Cheney, September 7, 1955,
CC,
22.

267
“from the American South”:
Times Literary Supplement
(September 2, 1955): 505.

267
“This book is getting much”: FOC to Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, June 10, 1955,
CW,
940.

267
“Doesn’t say much”: FOC to Ben Griffith, June 9, 1955,
CW,
941.

267
Ten North Frederick:
The fiction judges for the 1956 National Book Award were Carlos Baker, John Brooks, Granville Hicks, Saunders Redding, and Mark Schorer.

267
“about God”: Sally Fitzgerald, “Flannery O’Connor: Patterns of Friendship, Patterns of Love,”
Georgia Review
52, no. 3 (Fall 1998): 421.

267
“Dear Miss Hester”: FOC to Betty Hester, July 20, 1955,
CW,
942.

268
“Betty was very shy”: William Sessions, “Screening and Discussion of Film Interview with Flannery O’Connor:
Galley Proof,
” Georgia College and State University, Milledgeville, March 30, 2006.

269
“my own work”: FOC to Betty Hester, August 2, 1955,
CW,
944.

269
“a generation of wingless”: Ibid., July 20, 1955,
CW,
942.

269
“disappointed look”: FOC to Fred Darsey, June 8, 1955, Emory.

270
“I have thought of Simone Weil”: FOC to Betty Hester, August 9, 1955,
CW,
945.

270
“and what is more comic”: Ibid., September 24, 1955,
CW,
957–58.

270
“I have read almost 200”: Ibid., August 21, 1955,
CW,
947.

270
osteonecrosis: E-mail from Michael Lockshin, MD, to author, August 3, 2007.

270
“I am learning to walk”: FOC to Betty Hester, September 24, 1955,
CW,
956.

271
“It occurs to me”: FOC to Betty Hester, October 12, 1955,
HB,
109.

271
“Humpty Dumpty”: FOC to Betty Hester, October 20, 1955,
CW,
962.

272
“She was no beaut”: Victor Judge, Vanderbilt Divinity School, e-mail message to the author, April 25, 2007.

272
“Cheap and nasty”: Russell Kirk, “Memoir by Humpty Dumpty,”
Flannery O’Connor Bulletin
8 (1979): 14.

272
“quite horrified”: Ibid, 16.

272
“I hope you won’t let”: Caroline Gordon to FOC, February 19, 1955, GCSU.

272
“Which is the way I feel”: FOC to Robie Macauley, May 18, 1955,
CW,
934.

272
“The Freak in Modern Fiction”: FOC to Betty Hester, August 9, 1955,
CW,
946.

272
“I get so sick of my novel”: FOC to Brainard and Frances Neel Cheney, February 18, 1956,
CC,
32.

273
“Miss Regina always”: Alfred Matysiak, in discussion with the author, July 27, 2004.

273
“Greenleaf”: The story was published in
Kenyon Review
18 (Summer 1956); reprinted as the first-prize story in
Prize Stories 1957: The O. Henry Awards,
edited by Paul Engle and Constance Urdang; in
First-Prize Stories, 1919–1957,
edited by Harry Hansen; in
The Best American Short Stories 1957,
edited by Martha Foley; and in
First-Prize Stories, 1919–1963,
edited by Harry Hansen. It is the second story in
Everything That Rises Must Converge.

273
“Stories of Gifted Writer”: Ben Griffith, Jr.,
Savannah Morning News,
June 5, 1955.

273
“brought out a lot of points”: FOC to Ben Griffith, June 8, 1955,
CW,
937.

273
“that was always getting out”: FOC to Frances Neel Cheney, July 26, 1956,
CC,
40.

273
“I’m never prepared”: FOC to Betty Hester, January 17, 1956,
CW,
982.

274
“to stuff the Church”: FOC to Betty Hester, June 30, 1956,
HB,
134.

274
“flying buttresses”: Ibid., March 24, 1956,
HB,
151.

274
“intellectual vaudeville”: FOC to Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, May 8, 1955,
CW,
933.

274
“There she was, so young”: Alta Lee Haynes, “Flannery O’Connor Remembered, March 4, 1966,” GCSU.

275
“perverse”: “Modern Fiction Aspects Told by Novelist Flannery O’Connor,”
State Journal
(Lansing, Mich.), April 25, 1956.

275
“I am highly pleased”: FOC to Betty Hester, May 5, 1956,
CW,
994.

275
“mortification”: FOC to Betty Hester, February 25, 1956,
HB,
140.

275
“I have just had the doubtful”: FOC to John Lynch, February 19, 1956,
HB,
138.

276
“The competition is at least”: FOC to Betty Hester, May 19, 1956, Emory.

276
“When forced to a program”: Ibid., February 25, 1956.

276
“without pause, break, breath”: Ibid., May 19, 1956.

276
“I was basically treated as”: William Sessions, GCSU, March 30, 2006.

277
“conversation is limited”: FOC to Betty Hester, June 16, 1956, Emory.

277
“I always take people”: FOC to Betty Hester, June 28, 1956,
CW,
997.

278
“I seem to attract”: FOC to Robie Macauley, May 18, 1955,
CW,
935.

278
“Some Very Peculiar Types”: FOC to Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, May 8, 1955,
CW,
933.

278
“Mary Flannery is a sweet”: James H. McCown, “Remembering Flannery O’Connor,”
America
(September 8, 1979): 86.

278
“a white Packard”: FOC to Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, January 22, 1956,
HB,
133.

278
“Proud you did”: McCown, “Remembering Flannery O’Connor,” 86.

279
“turkey-dog”: FOC to Betty Hester, February 11, 1956,
CW,
986.

279
“of the scope and seriousness”: McCown, “Remembering Flannery O’Connor,” 88.

279
“Never let it be said”: FOC to Erik Langkjaer, April 29, 1956, private collection.

279
“a great mother-saver”: FOC to Betty Hester, August 11, 1956,
HB,
169.

279
“very oriented towards making”: Rosa Lee Walston, quoted in Jean Cash,
Flannery O’Connor: A Life
(Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2002), 161.

280
“A View of the Woods”: The story was published in
Partisan Review
24 (Fall 1957), reprinted in
Prize Stories 1959: The O. Henry Awards,
edited by Paul Engle and Constance Urdang, and in
The Best American Short Stories 1958,
edited by Martha Foley. It is the third story in
Everything That Rises Must Converge.

280
“breathless”: FOC to Betty Hester, October 20, 1956, Emory.

280–281
“While they make hash”: FOC to Betty Hester, September 8, 1956,
CW,
1004.

281
“history of horror”: FOC to Betty Hester, October 31, 1956, Emory.

281
“men and men’s ideas”: Bo Emerson, “The Secret Life of Betty Hester,”
Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
March 28, 1999.

281
“confirmed”: Allan Berube,
Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two
(New York: Free Press, 1990), 263.

281
“unbearably guilty”: FOC to Betty Hester, October 31, 1956, Emory.

281
“I can’t write you fast enough”: Ibid.

282
“I wish you could come”: FOC to Betty Hester, November 18, 1956,
CW,
1007.

282
“Simone Weil but even more”: Ibid., December 28, 1956,
CW,
1017.

282
“in some odd ways”: Betty Hester to Greg Johnson, November 20, 1996, private collection.

283
“Strike the Tent!”: “GSCW President Is Speaker for R. E. Lee Program,”
Union-Recorder,
January 24, 1957.

283
“The people who burned the cross”: FOC to Maryat Lee, January 9, 1957,
CW,
1019.

283
“the institution of higher”: FOC to Betty Boyd Love, [n.d., postmarked September 20, 1952],
HB,
44.

284
“Maryat was the ultimate bohemian”: Mary Dean Lee, in discussion with the author, January 18, 2005.

285
“I remember that I was feeling”: Maryat Lee, “Flannery, 1957,”
Flannery O’Connor Bulletin
5 (1976): 39.

285
“My, aren’t you
smaht
”: Maryat Lee, unpublished memoir, private collection.

285
“Just as I opened”: Lee, “Flannery, 1957,” 40.

285
“the soft long swinging”: Lee, unpublished memoir, private collection.

285
“She was so awkward”: Ibid.

286
“the croupy cry”: Lee, “Flannery, 1957,” 41.

286
“The parental presence”: FOC to Maryat Lee, January 9, 1957,
CW,
1020.

286
“Her words had theological”: Lee, “Flannery, 1957,” 43.

286
“I was excited”: Ibid., 44.

286
“In Care of the Henhouse”: Georgia A. Newman, “A ‘Contrary Kinship’: The Correspondence of Flannery O’Connor and Maryat Lee — Early Years, 1957–1959 (PhD dissertation, University of South Florida, 1999), 35; Lee never sent the letter so addressed.

287
“kinship between us”: FOC to Maryat Lee, May 24, 1960,
HB,
398.

287
“I thought now this is a mighty”: Ibid., January 31, 1957,
HB,
200.

287
“on and off”: FOC to Maryat Lee, February 24, 1957,
CW,
1022.

287
“the reek of Baldwin County”: FOC, unpublished version of “The Fiction Writer and His Country,” delivered at GSCW, “FOC Collection,” GCSU; included in file of correspondence with Mrs. Rebekah Poller, daughter of the GSCW social science professor Herbert Massey; Poller attended the lecture, and recommended the talk to her friend Granville Hicks.

287
“a real morality play”: FOC to Maryat Lee, January 31, 1957,
HB,
200.

287
“If the writer is successful”: FOC, unpublished version of “The Fiction Writer and His Country,” GCSU.

288
“by Ronald Re-gan”: FOC to Betty Hester, September 8, 1956,
CW,
1004.

288
“a
tap-dancer
”: FOC to Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, December 10, 1956,
CW,
1009.

288
“disliking it heartily”: FOC to Denver Lindley, March 6, 1957,
HB,
206.

288
“Children now point”: FOC to Maryat Lee, March 10, 1957,
CW,
1027.

288
“better judgment”: FOC to Granville Hicks, March 3, 1957,
HB,
205.

288
“I begin to feel”: Ibid., 206.

288
“designed for a student audience”: Ibid., February 24, 1957,
HB,
202.

288
“Cathlick”: FOC to Brainard and Frances Neel Cheney, March 5, 1957,
CC,
52.

288–289
“She seemed frail”: Robert Fitzgerald, “Introduction,”
Everything That Rises Must Converge,
xxiii.