Flannery O'Connor's Letters and the Editing of Authorial Intent

Abstract

ABSTRACT Flannery O'Connor's letters and essays have served as keys to understanding her authorial intent, and editors' decisions have played a significant role in directing how her personality is perceived and how her works are interpreted. Sally Fitzgerald, editor of the O'Connor collections The Habit of Being and Mystery and Manners, made decisions that should be second-guessed. One must take a critical attitude toward editors' selections and wonder what is being left out. Race is one topic on which Fitzgerald tried to protect O'Connor from scholarly scrutiny. Benjamin B. Alexander's collection presents over 140 previously unpublished letters by O'Connor, and many of these are so fascinating that one wonders why they were not published before. Alexander regularly follows the back-and-forth between O'Connor and a correspondent, even though this arrangement makes the book as a whole far from chronological in organization. Alexander should be applauded for negotiating permissions from a number of authors' estates, and if the overall effect is that the collection is a grab bag, one must be grateful for the gems. The weaknesses of Alexander's collection are that it repeats many letters published elsewhere and that Alexander's commentary is often so opinionated that the reader can feel bullied.