Creating Flannery O'Connor: Her Critics, Her Publishers, Her Readers

Flannery O'Connor may now be acknowledged as the "Great American Catholic Author," but this was not always the case. With Creating Flannery O'Connor, Daniel Moran explains how O'Connor attained that status, and how she felt about it, by examining the development of her literary reputation from the perspectives of critics, publishers, agents, adapters for other media, and contemporary readers.

Moran tells the story of O'Connor's evolving career and the shaping of her literary identity. Drawing from the Farrar, Straus & Giroux archives at the New York Public Library and O'Connor's private correspondence, he also concentrates on the ways in which Robert Giroux worked tirelessly to promote O'Connor and change her image from that of a southern oddity to an American author exploring universal themes.

Moran traces the critical reception in print of each of O'Connor's works, finding parallels between her original reviewers and today's readers. He examines the ways in which O'Connor's work was adapted for the stage and screen and how these adaptations fostered her reputation as an artist. He also analyzes how--on reader review sites such as Goodreads--her work is debated and discussed among "common readers" in ways very much as it was when Wise Blood was first published in 1952.

Author: Daniel Moran
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Published: 10/01/2017
Pages: 264
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.30w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780820349541

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 09/15/2016 pg. 84
Choice 04/01/2017

About the Author
Daniel Moran teaches writing at Rutgers University and history at Monmouth University. His work on G. K. Chesterton and John Ford has been published in academic journals, and he has contributed articles to a variety of teaching guides, including Poetry for Students, Short Stories for Students, and Drama for Students.