Mystery and Manners

'A rich, deep moral view of fiction and life: the lessons from this book were essential to my development as an artist.' Brandon Taylor At her death in 1964, O'Connor left behind a body of unpublished essays and lectures as well as a number of critical articles that had appeared in scattered publications during her too-short lifetime. The keen writings comprising Mystery and Manners, selected and edited by O'Connor's lifelong friends Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, are characterized by the directness and simplicity of the author's style, a fine-tuned wit, understated perspicacity, and profound faith. The book opens with 'The King of the Birds,' her famous account of raising peacocks at her home in Milledgeville, Georgia. Also included are: three essays on regional writing, including 'The Fiction Writer and His Country' and 'Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction'; two pieces on teaching literature, including 'Total Effect and the 8th Grade'; and four articles concerning the writer and religion, including 'The Catholic Novel in the Protestant South.' Essays such as 'The Nature and Aim of Fiction' and 'Writing Short Stories' are widely seen as gems. This bold and brilliant essay-collection is a must for all readers, writers, and students of modern American literature.

Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964) was born in Savannah, Georgia, the only child of Catholic parents. In 1945 she enrolled at the Georgia State College for Women. After earning her degree she continued her studies on the University of Iowa's writing program, and her first published story, 'The Geranium', was written while she was still a student. Her writing is best known for its explorations of religious themes and southern racial issues, and for combining the comic with the tragic. After university, she moved to New York where she continued to write. In 1952 she learned that she was dying of lupus, a disease which had afflicted her father. For the rest of her life, she and her mother lived on the family dairy farm, Andalusia, outside Millidgeville, Georgia. For pleasure she raised peacocks, pheasants, swans, geese, chickens and Muscovy ducks. She was a good amateur painter. Her Complete Stories was awarded the Best of the National Book Awards by America's National Book Foundation in 2009.