first of all, when I ask people who Flannery O’Connor was – most don’t know, some Irish guy? No, a woman, an author, who wrote mostly short stories. considered southern gothic. She grew up in Savannah, a Catholic among the Protestants. She remained Catholic her whole short life and that figures heavily in her stories.
Here is the house, a very narrow row house in Savannah.
the view from the upstairs bedroom, of the Cathedral. A wealthy relative who had no other relations, gave the house and many of it’s furnishing to the O’Connors. They lived there until Flannery was 13, then they moved back to Milledgeville GA, as her father was too sick to work. Turns out he was dying from Lupus, something that would kill Flannery at age 39 herself.
These historic plaques are all over town.
Joel didn’t know anything about her, so on the drive from Atlanta we listened to some of her stories, of course: A Good man Is hard to find.
Latter I spoke to a friend who very much knows who she is, I was discussing the pain leads to Belief in Catholicism and how strange that is for me as a Jew. He laughed, he is Catholic and it completely resonates with him – but spending time in our Jewish services on Saturday – he can see how different the two religions are.
I’ve gotten so bad with names. I think this is Jennifer, our guide, who also runs the foundation. She was excellent. My only critique is that at one point she tried to say the although Flannery was Catholic her whole life, in her writing – she is trying to distance herself from that. This is what a college education will get you.
Here is the baby Pram cousin Kate gave the family when Flannery was born. Notice it even has a window for the baby to look out!
Lovely stained glass over the front door, as well as the frosted glass panels.
The house is tiny, they did have a small sunporch in the back. Love the stain glass here.
sparkling Jewels.
After the family left other people lived there. At some point the building was sold and chopped up into 3 apartments. So when the foundation was created and the house repurposed- a lot of work had to be done. Luckily, when the family moved to Milledgeville, they took all the furnitures – so all that is back in the house and is original.
Today the small backyard looks like and 18th c. garden – it would not have looked like that in the 1930s’ it would have been a kitchen garden with chickens.
Flannery loved birds, back in Milledgeville- where she also spent the last 12 years of her life – she had a lot of birds. As well as peacocks, so people have been donating peacocks to the house. A lovely stained glass one.
Be still my heart! A cross stitch peacock! A really nice one at that.
Someone even made a bust of Flannery, I LOVE it.
Leah