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O'Connor Books and Videos

There are many excellent books by and about Flannery O'Connor. Below, you'll find a short list of books with which everyone interested in O'Connor should be familiar.

All of these books should be available through your library, but if you're like me you'll want your own copy. If you have an interest in buying any of these books you can click on the title of the book, and you will be taken to a corresponding amazon.com web page where you can order it. (when I can, I've linked to editions that can be shipped within 24 hrs so you can get them right away.)

If you have an adblocker enabled, it may blank the images of books, but the titles will still link you to their Amazon pages.

Flannery O'Connor's Works Fiction, criticism, and correspondence written by O'Connor
Flannery O'Connor Collected Works (Library of America) Collected Works is the O'Connor omnibus. If you want to get all of O'Connor's fiction and a good chunk of her non-fiction, this has what you need and then some. I would recommend this book to true O'Connor fans, a dedicated scholars, and even to the readers who are only interested in tasting a bit of her fiction. You simply get so much for your money. Well worth the price, in my opinion.
*The Complete Stories* This is the complete collection of O'Connor's short stories. This book doesn't include her novels, although most of the chapters of Wise Blood are in here, as O'Connor wrote it in several parts. It's interesting to see how the novel evolved from these vignettes. The stories are in chronological order according to the date they were written. Be prepared to spend several days/evenings with this book. Once you start, it's hard to stop. If you know you like O'Connor, and want to read all of her short fiction, then this is the book to get.
*Wise Blood* In my opinion, Wise Blood is O'Connor's best novel. Her celestial imagery really takes flight here, and the book is brimming full of other symbolism. It's one of those books you can read a hundred times, and it's different each time. Her characters are as fascinating as in her short stories, but with more room for development they become even more enigmatic.
*The Violent Bear It Away* The story of Francis Tarwater who faces the prophecy of his dead uncle--that Tarwater is to be the mouth of God and wake the sleeping sinners in the city. Tarwater struggles with his innate faith and the voices calling him to be a prophet. O'connor weaves irony and compassion, humor and pathos into a novel that delves into the schism between faith and reality.
*Everything that Rises Must Converge* In this collection O'Connor explores themes of race, faith, and morality with both comic and tragic stories that embrace the beautiful and the grotesque. Contains: Everything that Rises Must Converge, "Greenleaf", "A View of the Woods", "The Enduring Chill", "The Comforts of Home", "The Lame Shall Enter First", "Revelation", "Parker's Back", and "Judgement Day".
*A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories* This collection of stories tinged with foreboding established O'Connor on the literary scene. Contains: A Good Man is Hard to Find, The River, The Life You Save May be Your Own, A Stroke of Good Fortune, A Temple of the Holy Ghost, The Artificial Nigger, A Circle in the Fire, A Late Encounter with the Enemy, Good Country People, and The Displaced Person.
*The Habit of Being* This collection of O'Connor's correspondence offers insight into her personal views on writing, religion, peacocks, and everything else she felt was important. If you want to understand O'Connor the person, then you'll want to read this book.
*Good Things Out of Nazareth: The Uncollected Letters of Flannery O'Connor and Friends* This Convergent Books publication reprints O'Connor's correspondence, but differs from The Habit of Being by including letters written to O'Connor as well as letters by her. The book's editor gives a preview on Literary Hub via an epistolary exchange between O'Connor and Katherine Anne Porter that contrasts the voices of the two writers.
*Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose* Mystery and Manners collects all of O'Connor's non-fiction. She was quite a prolific writer, even outside of the fiction arena. This book reveals her critical approach to literature as well as her views on writers and writing.
The Presence of Grace and Other Book Reviews compiled by Leo J. Zuber A collection of O'Connor's non-fiction writing (other than letters, of course). Her articles and essays cover literary criticism, writing, religion, biography, and general intellectual history.
A Prayer Journal edited by William Sessions O'Connor's personal prayer journal discovered by William Sessions while he was compiling her official biography. This is an incredibly personal and insightful look at O'Connor's personal thoughts on spirituality and faith.
Flannery O'Connor: The Cartoons edited by Kelly Gerald Collects O'Connor's cartoons from her high school and college publications in the early 1940s when she experimented with techniques she later employed in her fiction.
Image Quarterly reprinted O'Connor's personal college journal written when she was eighteen years old. This is a rare look at the young author's intellect, humor, faith, and drive to be a successful writer--"I have so much to do that it scares me." The journal is published by an arrangement with the O'Connor estate in an exclusive print issue of Image Quarterly, number 94. (I am not affiliated with Image, although I do enjoy reading it and recommend a subscription to readers interested in the confluence of literature, art, and faith.) If you would like to know more about what's in the journal, The Atlantic offers a peek at the content.

Criticism
Works about O'Connor's Writing

Flannery O'Connor: The Imagination of Extremity
Frederick Asals

Many consider Asals' book to be the one indespensible critical analysis of O'Connor's work.

Flannery O'Connor and the Christ-Haunted South
Ralph C. Wood

Wood uses O'Connor's work as a window onto its own regional and religious ethos, examining O'Connor's dual role as faithful Catholic and blood-born southerner.

Dark Faith: New Essays on Flannery O'Connor's The Violent Bear It Away
Edited by Susan Srigley

Nine literary and religious scholars take a thematic approach to studying O'Connor's second novel.

Flannery O'Connor's Library: Resources of Being
Arthur Kinney

An annotated bibliography of the items from O'Connor's library that now reside in the Russell Library at Georgia College and State University.

Sacred Groves and Ravaged Gardens
Louise Westling

Considers how women's roles in the south contributed to the literary works of Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers and Eudora Welty.

Flannery O'Connor: An Annotated Reference Guide to Criticism
R. Neil Scott

A comprehensive guide to over 2,700 critical sources on Flannery O'Connor. The annotated entries cover U.S. and international sources.

Biography Books and Videos about Flannery O'Connor
Creating Flannery O'Connor Daniel Moran Moran considers how O'Connor attained the status of the "great American Catholic writer" and how she herself felt about it, examining O'Connor's evolving career and Robert Giroux's role in shaping her literary identity by examining the development of her literary reputation from the perspectives of critics, publishers, agents, and contemporary readers. Moran's sources include the Farrar, Straus & Giroux archives at the New York Public Library, as well as O'Connor's private correspondence. He also discusses current reader opinions--as found on sites like Goodreads--and the way her work is debated and discussed very much as it was when Wise Blood was first published in 1952.
The Province of Joy: Praying with Flannery O'Connor Angela Alaimo O'Donnell My first thought on picking up The Province of Joy was, "this book is going to have an extremely narrow audience." It's a daily prayer book for readers who want a deeper understanding of O'Connor's spiritual life, so we're talking about Catholic (or at least Christian) readers who not only enjoy O'Connor's fiction but also want to follow in her spiritual footsteps. Fortunately for this select audience O'Donnell does an impeccable job of revealing O'Connor's religious life through quotes from her personal letters, fiction and non-fiction. Even the title of the book comes from "The Prayer of St. Raphael" which O'Connor said every day. The Province of Joy, like O'Connor's fiction, functions on many levels: structurally the prayers are built around seven theological themes such as "The Mystery of Incarnation" and "Revelations and Resurrections," but each theme echos concepts prevalent in O'Connor's work, which in turn reflect back on her personal faith. It's clear that O'Donnell put a lot of consideration into the selections because the quotes from O'Connor read as if she is adding a personal comment on the day's theme. Perhaps The Province of Joy will not appeal to a mass market, but for readers seeking an intimate spiritual connection with O'Connor, it is a well-crafted book that accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do.
Flannery: a Life of Flannery O'Connor Brad Gooch Blake Bailey gives a delightful review of this book, there are good write-ups of the book at the American Interest and The Catholic Herald, and Joseph O'Neill of the Atlantic sort-of reviews Gooch's book but gets caught up in the spiritual drama in O'Connor's fiction (which isn't a bad thing). I've been pointed to a Library of America interview with Brad Gooch, the conversation of which touches on O'Connor's motivations, aspirations and personal life, but it's not particularly revealing if you've read The Habit of Being, so you'll have to get Gooch's book if you want to see how he treats any of these topics in-depth.
The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage Paul Elie This fantastic and ambitious work looks at the lives of "the School of the Holy Ghost"--Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Flannery O'Connor, and Walker Percy--four Catholic writers who grappled with common questions of religious faith.
*Uncommon Grace: The Life of Flannery O'Connor* Bridget Kurt has done a commendable job of distilling the essence of O'Connor's life into this perfect introduction to O'Connor that explains how her work was influenced by the places she lived, the people around her, her deep Catholic faith, and her illness. The video brings together the tangible with intangible, tracing the thread of relatives, homes, schools, cultural shifts, personal objects, hospitals, work habits, friends and more as she weaves them through her fiction. Viewers will be treated to around 100 previously unpublished photos, as well as interviews with experts on O'Connor's work including Bruce Gentry, professor at Georgia College and State University; Brad Gooch, author of the Flannery O'Connor: a Life; and William Sessions, O'Connor's authorized biographer and personal friend.

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