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 * Flannery O'Connor By Charles Ethan Faulkner**

Mary Flannery O’Connor, was born in Savannah, Georgia, on March 25, 1925, she was the only child of Regina Cline and Edwin Francis. In 1937 Edwin O’Connor started to display symptoms of disseminated lupus, in need for help the family moved to Milledgeville, Georgia, Regina Cline’s birthplace. In 1941, Mary Flannery’s father died. Mary Flannery O’Connor lived in Milledgeville for eight years and attended Peabody High School, and then she attended Georgia State College for Women. It is now known as Georgia College. In college Mary Flannery O’Connor developed a deep love for reading and writing. She graduated from Georgia State College for Women in 1945. After college Mary Flannery O’Connor decided to attend the School for Writer, headed by Paul Engle at Iowa State University. In Iowa she became recognized as Flannery O’Connor. She received her Master’s in Fine Arts from the University of Iowa. She also received the Rinehart-Iowa Fiction Award for her first novel with a portion of her then-unfinished work, Wise Blood. She also received a recommendation for a place at Yaddo writer’s colony in Saratoga Springs, New York, where she lived until spring of 1949. From 1949 to 1950 she continued to work on completing Wise Blood. After living in New York City she moved to Ridgefield, Connecticut, to live with the Robert Fitzgerald family. In December of 1950, Flannery O’Connor developed disseminated lupus, the same disease that her father died from in 1941. She then moved back to Georgia. In 1951, Flanner O’Connor and her mother moved to a dairy farm called “Andalusia.” In 1952 Flannery O’Connor published Wise Blood. Despite O’Connor’s physical symptoms of lupus her mental state stayed strong as she continued to write, as she worked on the short stories that would appear in her novel “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” She published the short stories in various literary journals before collecting them in one novel. In 1952 she received the Kenyon Review Fellowship in Fiction, a prize sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. In 1955, Flannery O’Connor published, “A Good Man is Hard to Find and other Stories.” While putting “A Good Man is Hard to Find” together O’Connor has also begun working on the initial chapters of the novel, “The Violent Bear It Away.” She made the first draft of this book in January 1959. in late 1959, she received the Ford Foundation Grant. In January 1960, Flannery O’Connor published, “The Violent Bear It Away.” In the summer of 1963, she received an honorary degree from Smith College. That fall, her health began to decline. After Christmas 1963, O’Connor began experiencing prolonged periods of weakness coupled with increasingly frequent fainting spells. Upon receiving treatment for anemia, she began to recuperate. Her recovery seems to have given her enough strength to write and revise the stories that would later appear in her last collection, “Everything That Rises Must Converge. In February 1964, it was discovered that a fibroid tumor was the cause of her severe anemia. Although an operation on a lupus patient was a risky proposition, there were few viable alternatives. On February 25, 1964, O’Connor was admitted to Baldwin County Hospital, where she underwent surgery to remove her tumor. Although the operation initially appeared to be a success, it was soon apparent that the surgery had exacerbated her lupus. On August 3, 1964, Flannery O’Connor died in the Milledgeville Hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia. In 1965, her final collection of stories, “Everything That Rises Must Converge,” was published. Later in “Flannery O’Connor on the West Side: Dr. Lyman Fulton’s Recollections of a Short Acquaintance.” Dr. Lyman stated that his most striking memory of Flanner O’Connor was her fondness of goat milk cheese.

** Citations  ** Wray, Virginia. "Flannery O'Connor on the Westside: Dr. Lyman Fulton's Recollections of a Short Acquaintance." __An Interview with Virginia Wray__ Sept, 2001 21 May 2008 . The article “Flannery O’Connor on the Westside: Dr. Lyman Fulton’s Recollections of a short acquaintance.” Gives and interview with Lyman A. Fulton, who knew Flannery O’Connor when she was still living. The interview ask several important questions including one about Dr. Lyman Fulton’s most Striking recollection of O’Connor. Dr. Lyman Fulton’s answer was, “her fondness for goat milk cheese”. I can use this information to help me write my essay. I would recommend this to people who need to understand an over view of her life. Bloom, Harold. "Biography of Flannery O'Connor." __Bloom's Major Short Story Writers: Flannery O'Connor__ (1999) 22 May 2008 . The article “Biography of Flannery O’Connor. Blooms Major Short Story Writers: Flannery O’Connor” explains Flannery O’Connor full life, giving details. There were facts like when and where she was born and where her family moved to when her father started to show symptoms of Lupus. This article is where I found most of the information I will be using in my paper. I recommend this for people who just want a general idea of Flanner O’Connor’s life. Sisler, Timoth. __Novels for Students__. vol 21. Farmington Hills MI: Thomson Gale, 2005. The entry for Flanner O’Connor in “Novels for Students” briefly explains Flanner O’Connor life. There are good facts and give the reader a general overview of O’Connor’s life. I recommend this entry for readers looking to understand the general aspects of O’Connor’s life, I would not recommend this for readers looking for specific facts, other than her birth date and other common facts. Walters, Dorothy. __Flannery O'Connor__. Boston Ma: Twayne Publishers Inc, 1973. The novel “Flanner O’Connor” by Dorothy Walters is a great resource for all of the aspects of Flannery O’Connor’s life. There are plenty of facts giving the full overview in addition to specific details. This novel is great for anyone with specific questions of Flanner O’Connor. I recommend this to anyone looking to find Flanner O’Connor’s complete life.