Christine Flanagan researched the relationship between writers Flannery O’Connor and Caroline Gordon
Haddonfield native Christine Flanagan first became fascinated by the Southern writer Flannery O’Connor as a student at the University of Rochester.
She was assigned to read O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” in her first college English class, and it was an eye-opener. Flanagan said she was shocked by the tale, which has a murderous ending.
“I didn’t know what to make of it,” she said. “I never forgot it.”
Now, Flanagan, an associate English professor at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, is getting ready to publish her first book, “The Letters of Flannery O’Connor and Caroline Gordon.”
As the title suggests, the book details the friendship and correspondence between O’Connor and novelist Gordon. It is set to be released Oct. 1 by University of Georgia Press.
Flanagan, a 1987 graduate of Haddonfield Memorial High School, has been researching the relationship between the two mid-20thcentury writers for four years. She has travelled to libraries in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and other Southern states to track down and compile copies of the letters the two women wrote to each other.
“It was sort of like a detective thing,” said Flanagan, who now lives in Barrington. “Where would these letters be?”
She was able to retrieve 66 letters, and some were as long as 13 pages. O’Connor and Gordon discuss several topics in the correspondence, but mainly they talk about writing, Flanagan said.
Flanagan teaches creative writing and said the letters contain more than a few lessons in storytelling.
“It’s like a master class in writing,” she said.
Flanagan said the correspondence also showed that Gordon played an integral role in launching O’Connor’s career.
Gordon was 30 years older than O’Connor, and she mentored the young writer, according to Flanagan. She also promoted O’Connor’s work and helped her build connections with other prominent players in the literary community.
“It was because of Caroline Gordon that Flannery O’Connor became so popular at first,” Flanagan said.
O’Connor, who died in 1964 at the age of 39, went on to become much more famous than Gordon. The U.S. Postal Service put O’Connor on a stamp in 2015, and her childhood home in Savannah, Ga., has been converted into a museum.
Gordon received recognition when she was an active writer, but Flanagan said she has mostly been forgotten since her death in 1981.
“I just couldn’t believe no one had ever heard of this woman,” Flanagan said.
Flanagan will be hosting at book signing for “The Letters of Flannery O’Connor and Caroline Gordon” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 9, at Inkwood Books, located at 31 Kings Highway East in Haddonfield. She will also be talking about the book Wednesday, Oct. 17, at 6:30 p.m. at the Philadelphia City Institute library branch, located at 1905 Locust St. in Philadelphia.
