The pink box, scuffed and torn, had lain in a file drawer for years. Inside, a brittle audiotape held the soft, lilting voice of Flannery O小蝌蚪APP機onnor, one of America小蝌蚪APP檚 most revered authors.
Dr. Mary Ann Wilson, a 小蝌蚪APP English professor, came across the reel-to-reel tape last spring while cleaning out a filing cabinet in her office. 小蝌蚪APP淎s soon as I saw it, I remembered that one of my colleagues had given it to me years ago. I was busy at the time and had simply forgotten about it,小蝌蚪APP she said.
O小蝌蚪APP機onnor had spoken at Our Lady of Wisdom Catholic Church, on the 小蝌蚪APP小蝌蚪APP檚 campus, in November 1962, two years before her death from complications of lupus. Her topic was 小蝌蚪APP淭he Catholic Writer in the Protestant South.小蝌蚪APP
小蝌蚪APP淪omeone had the foresight to make a recording,小蝌蚪APP Wilson said. She was unsure of the condition of the 50-year-old tape, so she enlisted the help of the 小蝌蚪APP小蝌蚪APP檚 Center for Louisiana Studies, which specializes in digitizing media.
What emerged was a 35-minute recording of O小蝌蚪APP機onnor and audience members.
O小蝌蚪APP機onnor addresses them in a distinctive South Georgia drawl. They respond with applause and frequent laughter.
小蝌蚪APP淎lthough she was a serious author, she certainly did not take herself seriously,小蝌蚪APP said Wilson, who frequently teaches courses about Southern women writers, including O小蝌蚪APP機onnor.
In her writings, O小蝌蚪APP機onnor dispensed dark humor and employed bizarre, larger-than-life characters.
小蝌蚪APP淪he believed that the way to the spirit was through the flesh, through the physical. She said she had to create grotesque figures, so that people living in the 20th century would sit up and take notice,小蝌蚪APP Wilson said.
O小蝌蚪APP機onnor published two novels, Wise Blood and The Violent Bear it Away, and two collections of stort stories. Two of her stories, 小蝌蚪APP淎 Good Man is Hard to Find小蝌蚪APP and 小蝌蚪APP淕ood Country People,小蝌蚪APP are often included in anthologies.
Wilson helped organize a symposium, held at Our Lady of Wisdom小蝌蚪APP檚 Jeanmard Center in November, where participants heard excerpts of the recording. A copy of the tape is available for on-site listening at Edith Garland Dupr茅 Library.
O小蝌蚪APP機onnor seemed to be 小蝌蚪APP渢rying out material小蝌蚪APP on her audience, Wilson noted. Much of the content of her speech appears in a collection of essays, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose, which was published in 1969.
When the late John Leonard, book critic for The New York Times, reviewed the collection, he equated O小蝌蚪APP機onnor with Mark Twain and F. Scott Fitzgerald, calling her one of literature小蝌蚪APP檚 小蝌蚪APP渇inest prose stylists.小蝌蚪APP The book, he said, 小蝌蚪APP渟hould be read by every writer and would-be writer and lover of writing.小蝌蚪APP