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of the Cheng Library for their assistance in securing scores of articles and dissertations through interlibrary loan, and my department chair, Linda Hamalian, and colleague and Gertrude Stein scholar Edward Burns. A former student, Michael Ptaszek, contributed in countless ways while working during all of these years as my personal assistant. For advice and comments on a presentation of my work in progress, I thank fellow members of the Biography Seminar at New York University, funded by the Whiting Foundation.

I especially wish to thank my tireless agent, Joy Harris, for finding just the right home for this project. And my editor at Little, Brown, Pat Strachan, rightly legendary for her hands-on engagement, adroit use of the editor’s pen, and subtle guidance in a cool and reassuring tone; my own infatuation with O’Connor was more than matched by hers, as I often found her rereading stories for a second or third time to test out observations. This book could not exist in its present form without the help of my perceptive friend Barbara Heizer, who closely read each word, chapter by chapter, as I was writing, and gave sharp advice at every turn. The wise and urbane Joel Conarroe graduated from friend to literary saint in my estimation for his labor-intensive reading and comments on a first draft and galley pages. When I finally printed out the manuscript, my partner, Paul Raushenbush, the ultimate “good guy,” asked brightly, after years of daily discussions, “What will we talk about now?” I’m confident that we’ll find plenty of other topics to discuss, Paul, though nothing quite of the tenor of Flannery O’Connor.

Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC: Excerpts from The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor. Copyright © 1971 by the Estate of Mary Flannery O’Connor. Excerpts from The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor, edited by Sally Fitzgerald. Copyright © 1979 by Regina O’Connor. Excerpts from “Introduction” by Flannery O’Connor from A Memoir of Mary Ann by the Dominican Nuns of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Home. “Introduction” copyright © 1961 by Flannery O’Connor. Copyright renewed 1989 by Regina O’Connor. Excerpts from Mystery and Manners by Flannery O’Connor, edited by Sally and Robert Fitzgerald. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company: Excerpt from “A Circle in the Fire” in A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories, copyright 1948 by Flannery O’Connor and renewed 1976 by Mrs. Edward F. O’Connor. Excerpts from “A Late Encounter with the Enemy” and “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” in A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories, copyright 1953 by Flannery O’Connor and renewed 1981 by Regina O’Connor. Excerpts from “The Displaced Person” and “A Temple of the Holy Ghost” in A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories, copyright 1954 by Flannery O’Connor and renewed 1982 by Regina O’Connor. Excerpts from “The Artificial Nigger” and “Good Country People” in A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories, copyright © 1955 by Flannery O’Connor and renewed 1983 by Regina O’Connor.

Notes

ABBREVIATIONS

PUBLISHED PRIMARY WORKS

CC Correspondence of Flannery O’Connor and the Brainard Cheneys. Edited by C. Ralph Stephens. Jackson and London: University Press of Mississippi, 1986.

Con Conversations with Flannery O’Connor. Edited by Rosemary M. Magee. Jackson and London: University Press of Mississippi, 1986.

CW O’Connor: Collected Works. Edited by Sally Fitzgerald. New York: Library of America, 1988.

HB The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor. Edited by Sally Fitzgerald. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1979.

MM Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose. Edited by Sally and Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1969.

PG The Presence of Grace and Other Book Reviews. Compiled by Leo J. Zuber and edited by Carter W. Martin. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1983.

COLLECTIONS

Emory Flannery O’Connor Collection, Robert W. Woodruff Library, Emory University, Atlanta.

FSG “Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc. Records,” New York Public