The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor

Flannery O'Connor

Macmillan, 1988 - Biography & Autobiography - 617 pages

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Special Award

"I have come to think that the true likeness of Flannery O'Connor will be painted by herself, a self-portrait in words, to be found in her letters . . . There she stands, a phoenix risen from her own words: calm, slow, funny, courteous, both modest and very sure of herself, intense, sharply penetrating, devout but never pietistic, downright, occasionally fierce, and honest in a way that restores honor to the word."—Sally Fitzgerald, from the Introduction

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Velmeran - LibraryThing

Flannery has a unique sense of humor all her own, but these letters are only really of interest to a Flannery fan. Still, they are very interesting to read.

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - john.cooper - LibraryThing

This remarkable book, which I've read over a period of years, distills and reveals the great personality of our best Southern writer, particularly as it is revealed and expressed by the two pillars of ...

About the author

Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964) was one of America's most gifted writers. She wrote two novels, Wise Blood and The Violent Bear It Away, and two story collections, A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Everything That Rises Must Converge. Her Complete Stories, published posthumously in 1972, won the National Book Award that year, and in a 2009 online poll it was voted as the best book to have won the award in the contest's 60-year history. Her essays were published in Mystery and Manners and her letters in The Habit of Being.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor
• Author: Flannery O'Connor
• Editor: Sally Fitzgerald
• Contributor: Sally Fitzgerald
• Publisher: Macmillan, 1988
• ISBN: 0374521042, 9780374521042
• Length: 617 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Literary Figures; Literary Collections / Letters