Spirit of a Liberal

Flannery O’Connor died young.  In 1964, she died of complications of lupus at age 39, but she has left a following of devoted readers, some Catholic and religious, but mostly literary. 

One of her devotees is Carl McColman, blogger of spirituality and mysticism at The Website of Unknowing.  He reports that a monetary legacy from her mother’s trust (Regina O’Connor, d. 1995) has provided funds to Flannery’s Catholic church in Millidgeville, Ga.  McColman has blogged about O’Connor often.

Christian fiction is a huge literary genre, but most of the thousands of Christian fiction books published annually are pure fluff compared to O’Connor’s masterful writing that is comic but dense, morbid but hopeful, Catholic in a world of southern evangelicalism, groteseque and sublime.   “Grace changes us and change is painful,” she said.

Her novel, Wise Blood, and short story, A good man is hard to find, are her most famous writings, and the noted collection of her work entitled, Flannery O’Connor The Complete Stories, published in 1971 will be found on the bookshelves of any and all fiction writer wannabes.

For recurring, in depth commentary and analysis of O’Connor and her work, see : If Flannery had a Blog, ”a blog of quotes about and by the great Catholic author Flannery O’Connor.”