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Carson McCullers was
born in 1917 in Columbus, Georgia. When she was fifteen,
her father gave her a typewriter, perhaps the gift
was for her birthday, or a gift of love while she
suffered from Rheumatic fever. Whatever led him to
give her a typewriter, changed the course of her
life.
Though she suffered from illnesses, her
independence pushed her forward into a world of
possibilities. She left home at seventeen to study
music in New York’s Juilliard School of Music, but
she never attended. Instead, she took odd jobs and
worked on her writing. She studied writing at
Columbia and NYU. In 1936, she published an
autobiographical piece called Wunderkind, in
Story magazine.
In 1937 she married
Reeves McCullers. They shared a passion for writing,
but he did not have her talent. They moved to North
Carolina, and it was there that she wrote The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, a novel in the
Southern Gothic tradition. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
received high praise upon its
publication. This novel and Reflections of a Golden Eye
were adapted to film. Her eccentric
characters resonated with readers. Their loneliness
was intense and drew deep empathy. In a discussion
with the Irish critic and writer Terence De Vere
White McCullers confessed: "Writing, for me, is a
search for God."
McCullers's marriage
took an unusual turn when they both recognized their
own homosexual tendencies. They separated in 1940.
She moved to New York to live with George Davis, the
editor of Harper's Bazaar. While there, she
became friends with W.H. Auden. After World War II
McCullers moved to Paris and became close friends
with Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote.
In 1945, McCullers
remarried Reeves McCullers. In 1948, Carson fell
into a deep state of depression. Mostly likely due
to her illness. She tried to commit suicide.
Reeves, too weak himself to care for her, killed
himself in 1953. After his death, McCullers's used
her writing to sort through her depression and the
loss of her husband. In 1958 she wrote a play
titled, The Square Root Of Wonderful, which
reflects this period of her life.
By
her early thirties, a series of small strokes left
her practically an invalid. Slowly, stubbornly, she
was forced to rely on others for care. She was
working on an autobiography, Illuminations and Night Glare when she died in New York on
September 29, 1967. Her death was the result of
another stroke and a brain hemorrhage.
Illuminations and Night Glare
Iwas published in
1999.
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