Aug. 3, 1964 - Flannery O’Connor, one of the nation’s most promising writers, died today at Baldwin County Hospital in Georgia. She was 39 years old.
Miss O’Connor had been ill for some years with lupus, an autoimmune disease that restricted her activities and forced her to use crutches.
She lived with her mother, Mrs. Regina O’Connor, on a 500-acre farm in Milledgeville, Georgia.
Miss O’Connor wrote every day of the week when possible. “I write from 9 to 12,” she once said, “and spend the rest of the day recuperating.’
Her first novel, “Wise Blood,” published in 1952, was generally praised by the critics. Ten of her stories were published in 1955 under the title, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.”
Her awards included O. Henry citations in 1955 and 1957 and a Ford Foundation grant in 1959.
Miss O’Connor’s first-floor workroom was crammed with books and journals ranging from Faulkner to weekly Catholic newspapers. She read and reread the Bible and made frequent allegorical comments in her stories.
A collection of stories to be published next February is entitled “Everything That Rises Must Converge.” This is a line from the writings of the late Jesuit anthropologist and philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
Miss O’Connor’s full name was Mary Flannery O’Connor, but she dropped the first name by choice many years ago.
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