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COPYRIGHT 2004 Spanish Association for Anglo-American Studies (AEDEAN)
When Flannery O'Connor was diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus in 1951 her personal and professional development were presumably cut short. Forced to retire permanently to rural Georgia with her mother, she depended on written correspondence to stay in touch with friends, editors and fellow writers. This article evaluates the relevance of Flannery O'Connor's letters both to the study of her narrative and to her own well-being. Although over the years she wrote and received letters from over thirty people, I will focus on two fundamental friendships which were forged through written exchange and which complement one another, while affording O'Connor scholars and enthusiasts a broader and more balanced perspective with regards to her thoughts on numerous issues such as religion, race, the process of writing and her illness.
Key words: Flannery O'Connor, Betty Hester, Maryat Lee, Sally Fitzgerald, letter-writing, written correspondence, lupus, The Habit of Being.
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The personal circumstances which defined Flannery O'Connor's restricted lifestyle are in large part responsible for her dependence on written correspondence to communicate with the world beyond the confines of Milledgeville, a small, uneventful town in the heart of Georgia's Bible Belt. When at the age of twenty-six she was diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus, the physical limitations brought about by this illness sent her home for good, interrupting a promising future--or so it seemed--which she had worked so diligently to forge for herself while living first at the writers' colony, "Yaddo," and later in New York and with friends in Connecticut.
Back in her mother's home town, and far from her editors, publishers, fellow writers and friends, O'Connor necessarily became a fervent letter writer, determined to keep up with outside events and to pursue her career by staying in touch with the literary world. Thus, written correspondence soon became an important part of her daily routine, occupying nearly as much time as her artistic production. Friends attest to her uncompromising work schedule and her military discipline: mornings were devoted to her fiction, during which she sat in front of her typewriter from nine to twelve--regardless of whether or not she was able to produce--and afternoons were spent reading and answering letters or receiving visitors.
The increasing availability of many of the written exchanges which took place between Flannery O'Connor and friends and acquaintances has given scholars new insight into her art. Thus, given the relevance of written correspondence in her life, in the following pages I will discuss the impact that the publication of her letters has had on academia, and more specifically the implications of the correspondence that Flannery O'Connor maintained with Maryat Lee and Betty Hester.
In a less than favorable 1964 obituary, a journalist referred to the writer as "a fierce Roman Catholic who wrote like a witch" (Sessions 1966: 210). Indeed, until some of her private correspondence was made available to the public--several letters were published as early as 1966 by her friend William Sessions--the picture O'Connor had given of herself appeared to be that of an austere, afflicted recluse. However, this first group of letters surprisingly revealed to O'Connor scholars and admirers that behind this writer's serious demeanor and tight-lipped responses, (1) there was a witty, compassionate and sociable young woman who relied upon the postal system to first develop and then nurture her most profound relationships, and whose letter-writing was an essential part of her well-being.
Although friends like the above mentioned William Sessions contributed to the prospect of considering Flannery O'Connor and her work in a different light, the year 1979 was to be decisive, marking a turning point in the research of this author's fiction. Fifteen years after the writer's death, her friend Sally Fitzgerald selected, edited and published The Habit of Being: The Letters of Flannery O'Connor--a collection of hundreds of letters written between 1948 and 1964. Thus, a woman who once may have seemed a "dour, religious fanatic" (Cash 2002: xvii) suddenly gained an entirely new dimension as scholars were afforded the possibility of reading correspondence addressed to a wide variety of people in this 617-page volume. Through what Robert Coles regards as an epistolary autobiography (1979: 6), Flannery O'Connor becomes for us "gradually and ironically ... a part of a long, absorbing, entertaining, edifying story--her correspondence a narrative one can't put down because one is learning, laughing, experiencing the reader's pain or sadness or merriment as one's own" (1979: 6).
Thanks to The Habit of Being--which has recently been translated into Spanish and published by Sígueme--the insight gained into diverse aspects of the writer's art and life is...
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