We will be meeting in Sharon DeLevie's art-filled home at 12:30 pm. Our meeting will begin promptly at 1 pm. For those who would like time for extra chat, Sharon will be opening her doors at noon.
To my disappointment I will be in California next week so will be unable to attend. My dismay is two-fold. Not only will I be missing what will surely be a wonderful presentation (and being with all of you,) but I also know nothing about Flannery O'Connor, nor have I ever read her, so this is a lost opportunity. I've just done a little Googling and realize that is not nearly enough to get a grasp of this seemingly complex writer or to make any sort of light quip or thoughtful reflection on her work.
I did find this quote, though, which jumped out at me. Isn't it amazing how literature can always somehow speak to the moment?
“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”
— Flannery O'Connor
I wish you all a lovely meeting and a delightful Thanksgiving holiday. x Jacquie
Christine's Minutes: On November 8, 2023, the Literature Club met in the spacious living room of Sharon DeLevie. All members were delighted to be meeting again inside a member’s home. Our hostess, Sharon, was dressed in homage to Flannery O’Connor, in a fifty’s “fit and flare” black and white dress, completed with red bow. Additionally, she had bedecked the house with peacock feathers in honor of our subject’s inordinate fondness for peafowl. Ten members attended.
President Constance rang the bell, and then Vice-President Joanna passed out the very elegantly designed booklets, along with inserts to accommodate the most recent changes, and noted an additional change.
Christine read the minutes for the October 3 meeting, and Carla read the minutes for the October 18 meeting. Both were accepted as read. The treasury still contains $170, none of it in crypto, lest you were concerned. There was no new business. As for old business, Constance said that at our December meeting, we will discuss the eternal question: to dine in company, or to dine alone at home. Then Constance thanked our hostess for her hospitality, and the delicious brownies, and announced the day’s speaker, Christine (your secretary).
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| Flannery O'Connor |
While unable to convincingly garb herself as a southern woman of the mid-twentieth century, Christine did bring Flannery’s favorite dessert, the Peppermint Chiffon Pie, served daily at the Sanford House in Milledgeville. Given that Christine was born on May 15, 1952, and given that Flannery O’Connor’s first book, Wise Blood, was published on May 15, 1952, and given that the Literature Club topic for 1951-1951 was “The Genius of Eve, Woman Writers,” it was inevitable that Christine would give her program on Flannery O’Connor.
Mary Flannery O’Connor was born on March 25, 1925 in Savannah, Georgia, into a Southern “old Catholic” family, with roots in Ireland. The only child of Regina (Cline) and Edward O’Connor, Mary Flannery grew up surrounded by a large extended and matriarchal, family. She attended Catholic schools in Savannah. Edward Cline suffered from ill health for several years, and in 1940, the family moved to the Cline Mansion in Milledgeville, now known as the Gordon-Porter-
Ward-Beall-Cline-O’Connor-Florencourt House. Edward O’Connor died in 1941 from complications of lupus. His daughter was deeply affected by the loss, but spoke of it rarely. O’Connor remained living with her mother while attending GSCW – Georgia State College for Women. She did not yet consider herself as a writer. In fact, through her years at GSCW she was seen as a burgeoning cartoonist, and her pictures illustrated most issues of the school paper. Her fascination with birds was well-established by then, and while at college, she kept a black crow along with a rooster, and many other creatures. Upon graduating in 1945, O’Connor received a scholarship to study journalism at the University of Iowa. Yet she quickly realized that she wanted to write stories, not journalism. She spoke with the Director of the Writers Workshop, Paul Engle, gave him a writing sample, and was enrolled. From then on, she was to be called simply Flannery, dropping the initial Mary.
Ward-Beall-Cline-O’Connor-Florencourt House. Edward O’Connor died in 1941 from complications of lupus. His daughter was deeply affected by the loss, but spoke of it rarely. O’Connor remained living with her mother while attending GSCW – Georgia State College for Women. She did not yet consider herself as a writer. In fact, through her years at GSCW she was seen as a burgeoning cartoonist, and her pictures illustrated most issues of the school paper. Her fascination with birds was well-established by then, and while at college, she kept a black crow along with a rooster, and many other creatures. Upon graduating in 1945, O’Connor received a scholarship to study journalism at the University of Iowa. Yet she quickly realized that she wanted to write stories, not journalism. She spoke with the Director of the Writers Workshop, Paul Engle, gave him a writing sample, and was enrolled. From then on, she was to be called simply Flannery, dropping the initial Mary.
Even while being homesick, and with her thick Georgia accent, Flannery flourished in grad school. She read widely, and her writing began to receive attention. A fellowship from Rinehart allowed her to stay in Iowa for an additional year, and work on her novel. She became friends with Robert Lowell, and came to know many other writers. In 1948 Flannery went to Yaddo, the writers’ colony in upstate New York. Then, as now, Yaddo was hotbed of literary activity and intrigue. She moved briefly to New York City to be near the center of the publishing world, but was pleased when her new friends, Robert and Sally Fitzgerald, invited her to come live with them and their numerous children in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Like Flannery, the Fitzgeralds were devout Catholics.
Thus began a lifelong friendship, that continued past Flannery’s early death, when Sally Fitzgerald acted as her literary executor and editor. Flannery was working on the novel that would become Wise Blood, while also experiencing ill health, joint pain, and fevers. In 1950, at age 25, she was diagnosed with lupus. Recognizing the health difficulties that awaited her, Flannery decided to move back to Milledgeville. With her mother, Regina, she moved just outside of town to a family farm they called Andalusia. Regina ran the farm, and Flannery wrote daily and finished Wise Blood, which was published in 1952. Though she rarely wrote about Catholics, Flannery O’Connor’s deeply held religious beliefs, and her illness, were the defining aspects of her writing life.
At Andalusia, Flannery raised numerous fowl, a wide variety of fowl. Once she acquired her first peafowl pair, she never looked back. She and her mother had lunch daily at the Sanford House, where her favorite dessert was that bright pink Peppermint Chiffon Pie (though it is unlikely that the real thing in Milledgeville was made with an Oreo cookie crust, as was Christine’s). She also had a wide-ranging correspondence with other writers, with priests, and friends.
In August 1964, she died of kidney failure, due to the lupus, at the age of 39. Her
posthumous collection of stories, Everything that Rises Must Converge, as well as collections of her letters and essays, were all edited by her friend, Sally Fitzgerald, with her lifelong publisher Robert Giroux. In her short life, Flannery O’Connor may not have written voluminous pages, but every page she wrote was exquisitely crafted and deeply felt. Her writing, uniquely southern, Gothic, and religious, was also universal in its depiction of the human psyche.
posthumous collection of stories, Everything that Rises Must Converge, as well as collections of her letters and essays, were all edited by her friend, Sally Fitzgerald, with her lifelong publisher Robert Giroux. In her short life, Flannery O’Connor may not have written voluminous pages, but every page she wrote was exquisitely crafted and deeply felt. Her writing, uniquely southern, Gothic, and religious, was also universal in its depiction of the human psyche.
Along with letters to Sally Fitzgerald, and an excerpt from King of the Birds, about peacocks, members read in its (almost) entirely, the story Good Country People.
Respectfully submitted,
Recording Secretary, Christine Lehner
Recording Secretary, Christine Lehner
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