O'CONNOR, FLANNERY.
Flannery O'Connor papers, 1832-2003 [bulk 1925-1972]

Restrictions on Access

Special restrictions apply: Printed or manuscript music in this collection that is still under copyright protection and is not in the Public Domain may not be photocopied or photographed. Researchers must provide written authorization from the copyright holder to request copies of these materials.

Due to the fragile nature of some material researchers are required to use photocopies.

Collection stored off-site. Researchers must contact the Rose Library in advance to access this collection.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction.

Related Materials in This Repository

Flannery O'Connor collection, circa 1937-2003

Letters to Betty Hester, 1955-1964

Sally Fitzgerald papers, circa 1930-2000

Louise Abbot letters, 1957-1995

Related Materials in Other Repositories

Flannery O'Connor collection, Special Collections, Georgia College & State University, Milledgeville, Georgia

Flannery O'Connor SMMSS, University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi

Frank Daniels papers, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia

Separated Material

Some printed items from this collection have been cataloged individually. These materials may be located in the Emory University online catalog by searching for O'Connor, Flannery, former owner.

Source

Purchase, 2014.

Citation

[after identification of item(s)], Flannery O'Connor papers, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University.

Processing

Processed by Laura Starratt, Michael Camp, Andrew Morsilli, December 2015.

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Biographical Note

Mary Flannery O'Connor, American novelist and short story writer, was born to Regina Cline and Edward Francis O'Connor in Savannah, Georgia, on March 25, 1925. She attended parochial schools in Savannah before moving to Milledgeville, Georgia, after the death of her father from lupus in 1941. After finishing high school in Milledgeville, she attended the Georgia State College for Women (now Georgia College and State University), also in Milledgeville where she received a bachelor's degree in social science in 1945. That year, O'Connor received a scholarship to study journalism at the State University of Iowa (now the University of Iowa), and while there, transferred to the master's program in creative writing (now the Iowa Writer's Workshop). She graduated in 1947, then spent parts of 1948 and 1949 at Yaddo, an artists' colony in Saratoga Springs, New York. In 1949, O'Connor met and eventually accepted an invitation to stay with Robert Fitzgerald (a well-known translator of the classics) and his wife, Sally, in Redding, Connecticut. After becoming ill with lupus in December 1950, she moved in with her mother at Andalusia, the O'Connor family farm near Milledgeville.

Her first published story, "Geranium," appeared in Accent magazine in the summer of 1946. Other stories followed, but O'Connor turned her attention to a novel. While undergoing treatment for lupus in 1952, O'Connor finished and published Wise Blood. The following year, her short story, "The Life You Save May Be Your Own," was selected for the annual O. Henry Prize's anthology. From 1954-1955, O'Connor held a fellowship at the Kenyon Review. Her first collection, A Good Man Is Hard to Find, was published in 1955, and "The Artificial Nigger" was selected for the Best American Short Stories of 1956. Numerous other awards followed, including grants from the National Institute of Arts and Letters and from the Ford Foundation. In 1960, O'Connor published a second novel, The Violent Bear It Away.

While most noted for her fiction, O'Connor was also an accomplished cartoonist and early examples of her artwork appeared in The Peabody Palladium, the student newspaper of Peabody High School in Milledgeville. She was the unofficial campus cartoonist at Georgia State College for Women, her work appearing in the college newspaper, The Colonnade; literary magazine, The Corinthian; yearbook, The Spectrum; and the Alumnae Journal.

Flannery O'Connor died in Milledgeville on August 3, 1964.

Scope and Content Note

The collection consists of the papers of Flannery O'Connor from 1832-2003. Earlier papers are those of family members, collected by her mother, and later papers contain records from the Estate of Flannery O'Connor. The papers include correspondence; writings; personal and family papers; art and artifacts; printed materials; and the papers of her mother, Regina Cline O'Connor. Correspondence includes general correspondence between Flannery O'Connor and fans, friends, and literary professionals as well as letters from O'Connor to her mother. There is also a small number of letters between other correspondents about O'Connor, her writing, or her relatives. Writings by O'Connor include writing assignments authored for college courses as well as poems, short stories, lectures, book reviews on nonfiction works, and draft fragments. There are also writings by others, primarily amateur writers seeking O’Connor’s comment, along with critical reviews of O'Connor's writings.

Personal papers include materials relating to Flannery O'Connor's personal life, financial records, and papers from her extended family. Of particular note are her journals, especially her prayer journal, published in 2014 by William Sessions, ed., where she discusses her faith and includes entries addressed to God. Also included are documents on running her family farm, Andalusia, in Milledgeville, Georgia, and financial records which consist of bank statements and cancelled checks, personal financial notes, and contracts for her books, A Good Man is Hard to Find, Wise Blood, and "A Novel." In addition, there are photographs of Flannery O'Connor at various points in her life as well as those of her with family members including her parents, Edward and Regina O'Connor, and her cousins, the Fitzgeralds, as well as Lynette Sessions and other members of the Cline family. There are also photographs of Andalusia, as well as some buildings owned by the O'Connor family in Milledgeville.

Materials created or collected by Regina Cline O'Connor include correspondence, bank statements and financial records, a travel diary, and Cline family documents. Of note are letters between the Flannery O'Connor estate and Sally Fitzgerald from 1998-2001 concerning a biography of Flannery O'Connor as well as requests from students and scholars asking about aspects about Flannery's life. The collection also contains artwork, , juvenilia, religious paraphernalia, and linotype blocks created or collected by Flannery O'Connor. Printed material consists of articles about Flannery O'Connor and her writings and other materials on topics that were of interest to her, particularly the subject of Catholicism.

This collection does not include letters between Flannery O'Connor and Betty Hester. For O'Connor's letters to Betty Hester, please see Flannery O'Connor letters to Betty Hester, MSS 1064

Arrangement Note

Organized into seven series: (1) Correspondence, (2) Writings, (3) Personal papers, (4) Photographs and film, (5) Regina O’Connor material, (6) Art and artifacts, and (7) Printed material