Introduction

Summary

FLANNERY O'CONNOR is one of the most studied of recent American authors. The number of book-length critical works dealing with her fiction amounts, at last count, to around eighty different titles, not including reference works, biographies, and other texts whose main purpose is not essentially analytical. Nor does this count include the many books in which O'Connor is a major figure but not the sole focus (books, say, that compare and contrast her works with writings by other authors). If such volumes were added to the total, the number dealing with O'Connor would surely amount to over a hundred. And, of course, O'Connor has been central to hundreds of doctoral dissertations and masters’ theses. In short, a virtual O'Connor critical industry has arisen and flourished, so that the attention paid to some of her contemporaries seems spotty in comparison. Search for “Flannery O'Connor” as a subject in the Library of Congress Online Catalog, and 173 items instantly pop up. Do the same for Eudora Welty, and the resulting total is 121; for Katherine Anne Porter, the result is 65; for Carson McCullers, the total is 61.

O'Connor, in short, has long been one of the best-loved and mostexamined American writers of the twentieth century. Fortunately, she has also been exceptionally well served by her two main bibliographers, Robert E. Golden and R. Neil Scott. Golden's work, Flannery O'Connor and Caroline Gordon: A Reference Guide (Mary C. Sullivan contributed the material on Gordon) appeared in 1977 as part of an ongoing series of annotated bibliographies. By annotating numerous early critical responses, beginning in 1952 and concluding in 1976, Golden contributed valuably to O'Connor studies. His book's chronological structure allowed readers to trace the growing development of O'Connor's critical reputation. Unfortunately, Golden was not able to include indexes covering subjects or topics, nor was he able to deal with books in real depth. (An article of my own, “Flannery O'Connor's Short Fiction: Major Trends in Critical Commentary,” published in 2016 and prepared with Professor Golden's blessings, does index the topics his book surveys.)

In contrast to the space limitations Professor Golden faced, R. Neil Scott's Flannery O'Connor: An Annotated Reference Guide to Criticism, published in 2002, seems anything but constrained. Running to 1,061 pages, with massively detailed indexes of topics and much more, Scott's book is extraordinarily impressive.