Today we say happy birthday to Flannery O’Connor. The date was March 25, 1925, when a legend was born in Savannah, Georgia. Mary Flannery O’Connor (a.k.a Flannery O’Connor) was a revolutionary writer in literary history redefining the Southern Gothic style. She was only thirty-nine years old when she died on August 3rd, 1964. In her short thirty-nine years, she became a novelist and short story writer. While her style was Southern Gothic, O’Connor had a gift in writing irony and violence.

Renowned works by Flannery O’Connor:

1.       A Good Man is Hard to Find (1953)

This is a well-known short story from a collection by the same name. This particular short story features Flannery O’Connor’s iconic violent style. It is about a family going on vacation to Florida, when “grandmother” insists they go to Tennessee because an escaped prisoner, a known murder that goes by The Misfit, was last seen in Florida. During the trip, the family gets into a car wreck and the first car that stops for them is a black hearse driven by The Misfit. Read the story to see how it ends!

2. Wise Blood (1952)

This is Flannery O’Connor’s first novel, which focuses on a World War II veteran’s relationship with religion after returning home from the war. He impersonates a priest and starts his own religion. This novel is extremely interesting, because one of her reoccurring themes is alienation and religion. To find out more about this story: read it here!

3. The Violent Bear It Away (1960)

O’Connor’s second novel tells the story of a young man who is trying to escape the life of being a prophet—a life his uncle desperately wants for him. This story uses O’Connor’s common themes of alienation, religion, and darkness.

4. Everything That Rises Must Converge (1965)

This short story that focuses on a young man on a bus with his mother, taking her to a weight loss class because she is uncomfortable taking an integrated bus. Throughout the story the audience witnesses black people enter the bus while the protagonist thinks about ways to make his mother uncomfortable with the new social dynamics. This story uses Flannery O’Connor’s common themes of violence, irony, and alienation.

5. Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose (1957)

This collection is unique because the pieces were selected by her friends, Sally and Robert Fitzgerald. It includes unpublished essays and lectures, as well as a few critical articles that have appeared in various publicationsthroughout the years. It pays tribute to O’Connor’s iconic stylings including her wit and irony used throughout the pages.

Flannery O’Connor was a masterful writer who took the world by storm while redefining literature through her Southern Gothic style. She was a woman who defied the odds, living with lupus for fourteen years before passing away. In 1957, she received the O. Henry Award, and in 1972 she received the National Book Award for Fiction, posthumously. Today we wish her a very happy birthday, and celebrate her unique works with the world.