Writer Flannery O'Connor Her Persistence Helped Her Become One Of The Country's Greatest Authors.(A)(Leaders & Success)

Byline: George Neumayr

Investor's Business Daily

There won't be any biographies of me," wrote author Flannery O'Connor. Her life, spent between "the house and the chicken yard," would not make exciting copy, she said.

She was wrong. O'Connor's life excites interest today. Literary critics herald her as one of America's greatest storytellers, and she's considered a master ofthe short story.

At first glance, her life, as she suggested, can appear insignificant. She nev

er married, she suffered from serious illnesses, and she died young.

But O'Connor, blessed with deep intellectual and spiritual gifts, achieved artistic success.

In works such as the short novel "Wiseblood" (1952), O'Connor wrote with a piercing moral vision that blended Southern and Christian influences in an original style.

She was born Mary Flannery O'Connor in …