Flannery O'Connor's Library: Resources of Being [Paperback]

Arthur F. Kinney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0820331341 | ISBN-13: 978-0820331348

More than just a bibliography, this catalog of Flannery O'Connor's library is an invitation to better understand the ideas, passions, and prejudices of the extraordinarily observant and creative author of Wise Blood and The Violent Bear It Away. Noting all the passages O'Connor marked in her books, transcribing many of the passages, and showing all references to specific books in O'Connor's published letters and book reviews, Arthur F. Kinney gives readers the opportunity to hear the intellectual dialogue between O'Connor and the authors of the books in her library--authors as diverse as Carl Jung, Henry James, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

A rich assembly of books on philosophy, theology, literature, literary criticism, and other subjects, O'Connor's personal library was collected while she lived at the family farmhouse near Milledgeville, Georgia. Now housed at Georgia College and State University, it shows signs of her frequent use. Passages that aroused such emotions as joy, wrath, and mockery are marked with her stars, checks, numbers, and often more extensive comments. Providing a general intellectual context for understanding O'Connor's work, the markings and notations offer in some cases a direct guide to specific facets of her work.

Helpful to anyone seeking to understand O'Connor, Flannery O'Connor's Library will prove indispensable to future study and criticism of one of the most complex and elusive twentieth-century American writers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Flannery O'Connor's Library is more than an inventory. . . . What [it] offers is the means by which scholars can consult O'Connor's library without having to make the pilgrimage to Milledgeville, and even for those who do it provides a ready means of locating important passages in O'Connor's reading. The result might be a better understanding of the intellectual and theological underpinnings of O'Connor's fiction and might even cause a decline in the number of blatant misreadings of her fiction."--Modern Fiction Studies

"A valuable resource for O'Connor scholars, and highly recommended.”--Library Journal

"Kinney has produced an exemplary study of Flannery O'Connor's library. One discovers at every turn precious bits of information which can only expand one's understanding of the Georgia writer's art. . . . It is difficult to imagine anyone improving on what Arthur F. Kinney has done here."--International Fiction Review

“A significant addition to O'Connor scholarship and one to which O'Connor scholars will frequently turn."--Mississippi Quarterly

About the Author

Arthur F. Kinney is a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts. Among his many books he is the author of Flannery O'Connor's Library and editor of Poetics and Praxis, Understanding and Imagination (both Georgia).

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: University of Georgia Press (January 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0820331341
• ISBN-13: 978-0820331348
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,411,327 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kinney provides an indexed, annotated bibliographic guide to Flannery O'Connor's personal library..., July 25, 2008

By 

R. Neil Scott "Writer, Professor & User Servi... (Murfreesboro, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flannery O'Connor's Library: Resources of Being (Paperback)

Kinney provides an indexed, annotated bibliographic list of books and other items included in Flannery O'Connor's personal library. The Library was given to the Ina D. Russell Library at Georgia College & State University by her mother, Regina Cline O'Connor.

Bibliographic annotations include: whether the book is in hardcover or paperback; publication and series information; publication or copyright date; and, whether editorial information is included.

The annotations are followed by descriptive acknowledgements of markings in the book contents, including: whether O'Connor had signed or dated the book; and, whether any marginal linings, marinalia, underlining, check-marks, or asterisks are visible. (States that O'Connor's original form and spelling were preserved.)

Notes that her magazines and journals are listed separately.

Also includes references to reviews that she wrote on a particular book and whether any mention of the book, "its preparation, publication, reception, or the ideas in it and O'Connor's evaluation of it," are in any of O'Connor's letters published in The Habit of Being, edited by Sally Fitzgerald.

Provides insight into O'Connor's reading interests from excerpts of letters to "A" [Elizabeth "Betty" Hester] and Janet McKane. Reports how she acquired the volumes included, notes significant gaps in the collection, and suggests titles of more than thirty books that the compiler (Kinney) is certain that she would have used extensively.

Suggests that the contents of the Library reflects O'Connor's "staunch Catholicism" and supports those who view her as a "keen amateur theologian." Focuses on marginalia and various other underlined and penciled portions of text that serve as "direct signposts" to help readers map out O'Connor's "aesthetic theory."

R. Neil Scott / Middle Tennessee State University