Flannery O’Connor collections

MARBL owns two collections that document the prodigious life and work of Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964). O'Connor, who was born in Savannah and later moved to Milledgeville, Georgia, published her first short story, “Geranium,” in the literary magazine Accent in 1946. She went on to publish two novels, Wise Blood (1952) and The Violent Bear it Away (1960) and continued to produce short stories, most notably the collection A Good Man Is Hard to Find (1955).

The first collection comprises of over 250 letters written by Flannery O'Connor to Betty Hester, a file clerk living in Atlanta, from 1955 to 1964. In addition to the dominant themes of faith, writing and literature, O'Connor addresses a spectrum of topics, including various friendships, familial relationships, speaking engagements, exchanges of books and clippings, feminism, and life on a rural farm. MARBL also holds the Flannery O'Connor collection, an artificially constructed collection featuring correspondence, selected manuscripts, and clippings.

More detailed descriptions of Flannery O’Connor’s letters to Betty Hester (MSS1064) and of the Flannery O’Connor collection (MSS59) are available in the EmoryFindingAids database.