Flannery O'Connor: A Memorial

by John J. Quinn

In 1964 when J.J. Quinn, the moderator of University of Scranton's literary journal Esprit, learned of Flannery O'Connor's death, he solicited a wide range of distinguished literary figures for tributes to Flannery. Among the contributers were: Brother Antoninus, Saul Bellow, Cleanth Brooks, Walter Burghardt, Harold Gardiner, Thomas Merton, Walker Percy, Eudora Welty, Katherine Ann Porter, and Robert Penn Warren. The present volume is a reprint...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0940866439
• ISBN13: 9780940866430
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: University of Scranton Press
• Length: 140 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Reprinted essays on O'Connor from Espirit -- a campus journal at the University of Scranton...

The volume I have in-hand is the 1995 edition of this book and I am comparing it to the original edition -- that is, according to the editor, very similar to this, the current edition. Quinn states that this volume is based upon a special O'Connor commemorative edition of "Esprit" -- a small campus journal published by the University of Scranton. The issue [8.1 (1964)], was published shortly after O'Connor's death. Noting the "heavy demand from around the country for copies of this special edition," the University of Scranton Press published the issue as a book as a way to commemorate the 30th anniversary of O'Connor's death. Articles in the issue are abstracted in Robert E. Golden and Mary C. Sullivan's book, "Flannery O'Connor and Caroline Gordon" [Boston: G.K. Hall, 1977]. Thus, reader's are referred for Golden's guide descriptive summaries of articles which appeared in the original issue. However, a comparison of this volume with the original issue reveals some differences. Not included from the original volume are: Nine drawings by Paul W. Lowry and Anthony R. Cannella depicting various O'Connor characters; several photographs (mostly of Andalusia) which had been used to illustrate Katherine Anne Porter's essay, "Gracious Greatness"; and, essays or poems by Rudolph Fara, John F. Judge, Jr., John Connolly, Robert C. Gredlicks, Joseph C. Townend, Paul D. Liesman, Kenneth Zeiss, Richard W. Quinn, Frank Kelly, and Bernard A. Yanavich, Jr. Added to the 1995 reissued edition are: a letter from Flannery O'Connor to Fr. Quinn in which she ranks short stories submitted by students for a contest; O'Connor's remarks at a University of Scranton symposium in which she defines what a short story is and offers advice to those who might wish to become short story writers; her remarks upon receiving the Georgia Writers' Association Scroll; and two concluding essays by Fr. Quinn: a review of The Violent Bear It Away and a discussion of the influence of Joseph Conrad and William F. Lynch on O'Connor's work. An index is also included. R. Neil Scott / Middle Tennessee State University