- Collection Overview
- Collection Description & Creator Information
- Access & Use
- Collection History
- Find Related Materials
Collection Overview
- Creator:
- Oconnor, Flannery
- Title:
- Flannery O'Connor Letters to Ashley Brown
- Repository:
- Manuscripts Division
- Permanent URL:
- http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/zk51vg784
- Dates:
- 1958-1964
- Size:
- 1 box and 0.2 linear feet
- Storage Note:
- ReCAP (scarcpxm): Box 1
- Language:
- English
Abstract
Consists of thirty-eight letters written by the Southern author Flannery O'Connor to her friend Ashley Brown.
Collection Description & Creator Information
- Scope and Contents
The collection consists of thirty-eight letters written by O'Connor to her author friend Ashley Brown. The letters discuss mutual friends and other authors, such as Elizabeth Bishop; Caroline Gordon and her husband, Allen Tate; Iris Murdoch; Eudora Welty; her mother, Regina Cline O'Connor, who lived with her; and Robert and Sally Fitzgerald, with whom she stayed in Connecticut in 1949. She writes about her swans and their illnesses, about her own illness and deteriorating health, about Princeton, Princeton University, and the people she knew there, and she makes references to her work, such as writing the introduction to A Good Man is Hard to Find. In a letter dated 12 Novermber 1960, she explains how the ladies of the South voted for Richard Nixon rather than John F. Kennedy during the 1960 presidential election campaign. Thirty of the letters are typewritten and signed by O'Connor, and eight are handwritten, particularly the later ones when she was suffering from symptoms of lupus and was in the hospital.
- Arrangement
The letters are arranged in chronological order.
- Collection Creator Biography:
Oconnor, Flannery
Mary Flannery O'Connor (March 25, 1925 - August 3, 1964) was a Southern novelist and storywriter, born in Savannah, Georgia. Her father had lupus, and the disease was hereditary in the O'Connor family. In 1951, after being diagnosed with lupus herself, she returned to her ancestral farm in Milledgeville. There she raised and nurtured some 100 peafowl. Fascinated by birds of all kinds, she raised ducks, hens, geese, swans, and any sort of exotic bird she could obtain, and she incorporated images of peacocks often in her work. O'Connor authored two novels and 31 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries, including Wise Blood (novel, 1952), The Violent Bear it Anyway (novel, 1960), and A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories (1955). Everything That Rises Must Converge (stories) was published posthumously in 1965.
Collection History
- Acquisition:
The letters were purchased in 1986 .
- Appraisal
No appraisal information is available.
- Processing Information
Folder inventory added by Nicholas Williams '2015 in 2012.
Access & Use
- Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research use.
- Conditions Governing Use
Single copies may be made for research purposes. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. For instances beyond Fair Use, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections, nor does it require researchers to obtain its permission for said use. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Ask Us! form.
- Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.
- Credit this material:
Flannery O'Connor Letters to Ashley Brown; Manuscripts Division, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library
- Permanent URL:
- http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/zk51vg784
- Location:
-
Firestone LibraryOne Washington RoadPrinceton, NJ 08544, USA
- Storage Note:
- ReCAP (scarcpxm): Box 1