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Carson McCullers: A Life
The first major biography in more than twenty years of one of America’s greatest writers, based on newly available letters and journals
V. S. Pritchett called her “a genius.” Gore Vidal described her as a “beloved novelist of singular brilliance . . . Of all the Southern writers, she is the most apt to endure . . .” And Tennessee Williams said, “The only real writer the South ever turned out, was Carson.”
She was born Lula Carson Smith in Columbus, Georgia. Her dream was to become a concert pianist, though she’d been writing since she was sixteen and the influence of music was evident throughout her work. As a child, she said she’d been “born a man.” At twenty, she married Reeves McCullers, a fellow southerner, ex-soldier, and aspiring writer (“He was the best-looking man I had ever seen”). They had a fraught, tumultuous marriage lasting twelve years and ending with his suicide in 1953. Reeves was devoted to her and to her writing, and he envied her talent; she yearned for attention, mostly from women who admired her but rebuffed her sexually. Her first novel— The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter —was published in 1940, when she was twenty-three, and overnight, Carson McCullers became the most widely talked about writer of the time.
While McCullers’s literary stature continues to endure, her private life has remained enigmatic and largely unexamined. Now, with unprecedented access to the cache of materials that has surfaced in the past decade, Mary Dearborn gives us the first full picture of this brilliant, complex artist who was decades ahead of her time, a writer who understood—and captured—the heart and longing of the outcast.
V. S. Pritchett called her “a genius.” Gore Vidal described her as a “beloved novelist of singular brilliance . . . Of all the Southern writers, she is the most apt to endure . . .” And Tennessee Williams said, “The only real writer the South ever turned out, was Carson.”
She was born Lula Carson Smith in Columbus, Georgia. Her dream was to become a concert pianist, though she’d been writing since she was sixteen and the influence of music was evident throughout her work. As a child, she said she’d been “born a man.” At twenty, she married Reeves McCullers, a fellow southerner, ex-soldier, and aspiring writer (“He was the best-looking man I had ever seen”). They had a fraught, tumultuous marriage lasting twelve years and ending with his suicide in 1953. Reeves was devoted to her and to her writing, and he envied her talent; she yearned for attention, mostly from women who admired her but rebuffed her sexually. Her first novel— The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter —was published in 1940, when she was twenty-three, and overnight, Carson McCullers became the most widely talked about writer of the time.
While McCullers’s literary stature continues to endure, her private life has remained enigmatic and largely unexamined. Now, with unprecedented access to the cache of materials that has surfaced in the past decade, Mary Dearborn gives us the first full picture of this brilliant, complex artist who was decades ahead of her time, a writer who understood—and captured—the heart and longing of the outcast.
484 pages, Hardcover
First published February 27, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
November 30, 2023
As brilliant and talented as McCullers was she was also an absolute mess. Troubled, alcoholic, and as she aged, her physical ailments progressively worsened making her even more dependent and needy. Like most well-written and well-researched biographies, this one is filled with minutiae. In this instance, it helps to reveal the woman behind her work. I now know more about Carson McCullers than I ever needed to know.
December 18, 2024
In this biography of Carson McCullers, Mary Dearborn has written it, trimmed it and squared it up with detail in an accessible, yet deeply researched form. Dearborn has captured the Otherness of McCullers in a way that underscores, agrees with, validates and elucidates all I've read in her writing. This biography shines a warm light on the fierce-yet-fragile presence in the world that was Carson McCullers.
Kudos to Ms. Dearborn for this well-written book, helping readers add context to Carson McCuller's body of work.
*A sincere thank you to Mary V. Dearborn, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.* #CarsonMcCullers #NetGalley
Kudos to Ms. Dearborn for this well-written book, helping readers add context to Carson McCuller's body of work.
*A sincere thank you to Mary V. Dearborn, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.* #CarsonMcCullers #NetGalley
November 28, 2023
"Carson McCullers: A Life" by Mary V. Dearborn is an insightful exploration of the complex and tumultuous life of one of America's literary icons. Dearborn skillfully weaves together the threads of McCullers' personal struggles and creative triumphs, providing a nuanced portrait of the author behind classics like "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" and "The Member of the Wedding."
The biography delves into McCullers' relationships, from her turbulent marriage to her close friendships with luminaries like Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote. Dearborn captures the essence of McCullers' singular voice and the profound emotional depth that permeates her work.
While celebrating McCullers' literary achievements, Dearborn does not shy away from the challenges she faced, including health issues, societal expectations, and the complexities of identity. The author's meticulous research and engaging narrative style make this biography a compelling read for both devoted fans and those new to McCullers' world.
"Carson McCullers: A Life" stands as a well-crafted and empathetic tribute, shedding light on the extraordinary life of a literary pioneer whose impact continues to resonate in the literary landscape.
The biography delves into McCullers' relationships, from her turbulent marriage to her close friendships with luminaries like Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote. Dearborn captures the essence of McCullers' singular voice and the profound emotional depth that permeates her work.
While celebrating McCullers' literary achievements, Dearborn does not shy away from the challenges she faced, including health issues, societal expectations, and the complexities of identity. The author's meticulous research and engaging narrative style make this biography a compelling read for both devoted fans and those new to McCullers' world.
"Carson McCullers: A Life" stands as a well-crafted and empathetic tribute, shedding light on the extraordinary life of a literary pioneer whose impact continues to resonate in the literary landscape.
March 7, 2024
This really does deserve the press it’s receiving—it’s such an achievement. The archival research that went into this book is amazing. Like many reviewers have said, I appreciate how clear-sighted this account of McCullers is—and it’s so engaging to read.
(I still disagree with its characterization of Welty, but I’ll put that aside.)
(I still disagree with its characterization of Welty, but I’ll put that aside.)
August 15, 2025
Mary Dearborn's finely-crafted biography, Carson McCullers: A Life (2024) provides the reader with a wealth of background on how the artist's life intersected with the characters in her work, including her best-selling novels and plays, which continue to be read & performed almost 60 years after McCullers' death.
The erstwhile Lula Carson Smith demonstrated sensitivity & imagination while young, born in 1917 to a family with a long history of alcoholism, in Columbus, Georgia, a small but cosmopolitan town with a thriving middle class & a multi-ethnic background, including Greeks, Italians & Jews & also Ma Rainey.
Early on, she displayed a creative bent and aspired to a career as a concert pianist, perhaps enrolling at Julliard, before eventually devoting herself to a writing career.
The question of McCullers' "gender fluidity" is explored by biographer Dearborn, as it was in her equally excellent biography of Ernest Hemingway. We are told that McCullers often thought of herself as a tomboy, a man entombed in a woman's body, "affecting male clothing, either as an expression of her individuality, or as latent lesbianism."
Carson McCullers' gender fluidity was "a thread throughout her major works & it is fundamental to the strangeness embedded in the remarkable cast of characters who people her novels & stories."
During her troubled marriage to fellow southerner, Reeves McCullers (who later committed suicide), Carson explored her sexual identity, being "entirely comfortable as a bisexual, although largely lesbian." However, her many flirtations with women were apparently largely rebuffed by those she seemed to desire intimacy with.
As was the case with Mary Dearborn's Hemingway biography, the prologue to her biography of Carson McCullers is exceptional, perhaps the finest part of the book. In it, she comments:
Later in life, while living in Nyack, N.Y. Carson McCullers "chose to dress the part of a mysterious recluse, behind whose disabilities lay a romantic story, a uniform of sorts, perhaps akin to Emily Dickinson."
In Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, The Ballad of Sad Cafe, Reflections in a Golden Eye and other works, the author "conveys the integrity of the human spirit of those who are marginalized. The result is a cast of characters & a body of work that readers feel passionate about."
Beyond that,
The erstwhile Lula Carson Smith demonstrated sensitivity & imagination while young, born in 1917 to a family with a long history of alcoholism, in Columbus, Georgia, a small but cosmopolitan town with a thriving middle class & a multi-ethnic background, including Greeks, Italians & Jews & also Ma Rainey.
Early on, she displayed a creative bent and aspired to a career as a concert pianist, perhaps enrolling at Julliard, before eventually devoting herself to a writing career.
The question of McCullers' "gender fluidity" is explored by biographer Dearborn, as it was in her equally excellent biography of Ernest Hemingway. We are told that McCullers often thought of herself as a tomboy, a man entombed in a woman's body, "affecting male clothing, either as an expression of her individuality, or as latent lesbianism."
Carson McCullers' gender fluidity was "a thread throughout her major works & it is fundamental to the strangeness embedded in the remarkable cast of characters who people her novels & stories."
During her troubled marriage to fellow southerner, Reeves McCullers (who later committed suicide), Carson explored her sexual identity, being "entirely comfortable as a bisexual, although largely lesbian." However, her many flirtations with women were apparently largely rebuffed by those she seemed to desire intimacy with.
As was the case with Mary Dearborn's Hemingway biography, the prologue to her biography of Carson McCullers is exceptional, perhaps the finest part of the book. In it, she comments:
Besides homosexuality, alcoholism, cross-dressing and mental illness, the improbable range of difficult if not taboo subjects that Carson took on in her singular first novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, included communism, poverty, racism & adolescent sex.By the age of 30, McCullers had suffered a series of disabling strokes, nonetheless managing to continue a fairly robust life, continuing to write, while fueling her fertile imagination with a steady intake of alcohol. As Julie Harris, who starred in the theatrical version of The Member of the Wedding put it, "McCullers might have created much more, had she not chosen to further cripple herself with alcohol."
Later in life, while living in Nyack, N.Y. Carson McCullers "chose to dress the part of a mysterious recluse, behind whose disabilities lay a romantic story, a uniform of sorts, perhaps akin to Emily Dickinson."
In Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, The Ballad of Sad Cafe, Reflections in a Golden Eye and other works, the author "conveys the integrity of the human spirit of those who are marginalized. The result is a cast of characters & a body of work that readers feel passionate about."
Beyond that,
Carson's unerring instinct for the outsider's life informed all her fiction, subtly guiding her to truths that transcend specific characters and their specific circumstances, in the words of Hilton Als, "each defining the status quo while existing outside of it". That McCullers managed to persevere in her singular exploration of the human soul was her victory, imagining a world in which the lonely hunter is not alone.*Within my review are the images of biographer, Mary Dearborn (near the top of my review), followed by two of Carson McCullers.
October 20, 2024
Carson McCullers is one of the most acclaimed authors of the Southern Gothic genre, but she was also a complicated woman with a messy personal life who constantly strove toward goals that, though she did not reach always reach them, created beautiful things along the way.
I knew Carson McCullers as a once-popular author who, while not exactly obscure now, was certainly not as well known as her contemporaries. Still, what I've read about her books sounds fascinating, and I have had them on overflowing TBR list for a while. This, alongside what I knew of her strange, turbulent life, was what made me want to read this lengthy biography of her.
Author Dearborn certainly digs deep in her assessment of McCullers, interweaving the complex strands of her professional and personal lives to create a nuanced portrait. On one hand she was a writing prodigy who captured the experience of being an outsider, a woman whose mind soared beyond the limitations of her many long illnesses and her dependance on alcohol. On the other hand, she was a needy, often selfish person who loved and suffered for loving a long string women who had no interest in her - and that's not even touching her incredibly turbulent relationship with her husband.
After reading this book, I feel like I've gotten a close insight into McCullers, as well as how her personal life and the currents of the times clashed and inspired her work. However, I did think that Dearborn occasionally was selective in what she presented of McCullers, as well as how she interpreted her more ambiguous pronouncements and actions, without discussing alternative views on it - a major failing when so much of McCullers's life was subject to subtextual reading.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
I knew Carson McCullers as a once-popular author who, while not exactly obscure now, was certainly not as well known as her contemporaries. Still, what I've read about her books sounds fascinating, and I have had them on overflowing TBR list for a while. This, alongside what I knew of her strange, turbulent life, was what made me want to read this lengthy biography of her.
Author Dearborn certainly digs deep in her assessment of McCullers, interweaving the complex strands of her professional and personal lives to create a nuanced portrait. On one hand she was a writing prodigy who captured the experience of being an outsider, a woman whose mind soared beyond the limitations of her many long illnesses and her dependance on alcohol. On the other hand, she was a needy, often selfish person who loved and suffered for loving a long string women who had no interest in her - and that's not even touching her incredibly turbulent relationship with her husband.
After reading this book, I feel like I've gotten a close insight into McCullers, as well as how her personal life and the currents of the times clashed and inspired her work. However, I did think that Dearborn occasionally was selective in what she presented of McCullers, as well as how she interpreted her more ambiguous pronouncements and actions, without discussing alternative views on it - a major failing when so much of McCullers's life was subject to subtextual reading.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
December 17, 2024
"Sometimes I think God got me mixed up with Job. But Job never cursed God and neither have I. I carry on."This sharply realized, seemingly thorough biography fills the gaps left in previous biographical accounts of the author. It's also an immensely sad book, much sadder perhaps than anything McCullers herself could have written.
If she had ever - except in analysis - been more upfront about herself in real life, that would (as this bio indicates) have flown in the face of her genteel manners. A real Southern lady simply didn't mess with valued composure and comportment... not in the public eye, anyway. ~ and not if it could be helped.
However, much of Mary V. Dearborn's unraveling here is taken up with the many private times that it couldn't be helped. ~ mainly due to the second half of Carson's life being hijacked by life-threatening illness, and most of her life being (rather psychotically) attached to a sexually confused man (her husband Reeves) who ultimately took his own life. (It's startling to learn that his three siblings did the same.)
McCullers' own (unfinished) autobiography, 'Illumination and Night Glare' (finally published in 1999) skirts specifics on significant character-and-event issues. (One senses, again, the desire to sweep under the rug.)
Simply put, both Reeves and Carson were casualties of an unenlightened time and place. It was bad enough to have to live as though 'inverted' emotionally. But the question mark of personal definition was exacerbated by (not only sickness but) an oppressive atmosphere that would one day be more widely described as 'gothic':
[Carson] told a friend that the South had an evil quality that scared her.At the same time, all of this was at troubling odds with Carson's strangely singular career, starting with her auspicious debut novel, 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter' (written, remarkably, at age 22).
Quick on the heels of that stunning achievement came the equally impressive 'Reflections in a Golden Eye', published the following year (1941), and filmed (in 1967), with director John Huston feeling it was among his best work (personally, I agree, esp. if the film is seen in Huston's original golden-tinted print).
Somewhere in there - with a career barely begun - is where the health problems fiendishly made themselves known. They would hound Carson the rest of her life, until she let the struggle have its way (at the untimely age of 50). It's as though her infirmities had a mind of their own; set on upending what was yet unformed in Carson's character and exploiting her inability to balance emotions the way a healthier person could, and would have.
Of course, there was also alcohol - just for extra bad measure. That had taken on disease proportion in Carson's family - and in Carson's life and her life with Reeves.
Nevertheless, McCullers would continue to experience intermittent success, chiefly by way of the novella 'The Member of the Wedding', which the author would go on to revisualize as (what became) a much-admired and successful Broadway play:
To Paul Bigelow, who knew Carson well, [Tennessee Williams] confided that the play's success had revealed to him "the existence of a Providence of some kind."Still, her life never switched from its steps forward / steps back trajectory. But, even though much of what we read here can seem unbearable, the reader can't help but be in awe of the Spirit that McCullers wrestled with. As Henry James biographer Leon Edel states:
One always felt the burden she carried--a kind of sense of doom which she eased with the comedy of her mind and her devotion to her art. She shaped and reshaped her fancies and her "case"--a little case--is poignant in its accomplishment, in the face of her life-denying demons.
May 15, 2024
This was an arresting portrait of a fascinating, flawed writer. It was interesting to see so much empathy for Reeves after reading My Autobiography of Carson McCullers (a work which Dearborn refers to simply as "passionate," which is hilarious and damning). The author has a facile understanding of gender and transition, but it played so little a role in the narrative that it didn't burden the book much--except in the epilogue, which would have benefitted from the input of trans scholars. Anyone with even a passing interest in Carson specifically or Southern writing in general should absolutely read this.
September 2, 2024
My basic litmus test for any serious biography is whether the time invested in reading the book feels worthwhile and more illuminating than scanning through a brief Wikipedia entry. After reading Mary V. Dearborn's Carson McCullers: A Life, my reaction can be summed up with a shrug emoji.
While I've been a longtime fan of her fiction, McCullers' life, after childhood, falls into a repetitive pattern in which the author heads to Yaddo, or France, or the UK, to write. She drinks to excess and alienates her hosts. She'll fall madly and passionately in love with an older woman, usually an author herself. Her layabout bisexual husband will show up, and the two will drink and brawl violently before separating. Then McCullers will end up in the hospital and Tennessee Williams will pop out of the nearby scenery to utter a bitchy quip about her to his friends. Rinse and repeat, ad nauseum.
While Dearborn does her level best to narrate McCullers' wearying cycle of artistic creation and personal destruction, there are multiple points throughout in which we're asked to trust Dearborn's assessments without any primary documentation.
There's an incident in which, for example, McCullers writes from France to her husband in the U.S., asking him to purchase for her a specific type of ring. She's left her wedding ring in her upstate New York home, she tells him. He can size it from that. To me it sounds innocuous enough, but Dearborn characterizes the letter as sheer spite in penned form, in which McCullers is flaunting her same-sex affairs in a passive-aggressive manner to a man made shaky from alcoholism. I mean, sure. She could be. But when I make meatballs from scratch, I take off my wedding ring and sometimes forget it on the windowsill and it's not because I'm trying to destroy my marriage. A reader can't really judge tone and decide for themselves whether or not McCullers is being vicious when they never at any point get to read a word of those letters.
In another confrontation, when McCullers asks a mutual male friend to join her and her husband in the bedroom, Dearborn characterizes the move as 'purely malicious,' designed to complicate the couple's already-Byzantine love life. Yet from my perspective, it might have been McCullers attempting to give her husband freedom to explore his tortured bisexuality with his wife present—her attempt in a repressive era to create for him a safe and face-saving environment. Who knows where the truth lies? The reader never will, because we're expected to take Dearborn's schoolmarm judgment at face value, without any real documentation to back it up.
It's not as if Dearborn is exactly a reliable narrator, either. There's a point late in the biography when McCullers invites Isak Dinesen (of Out of Africa) to a meal and learns that the elderly author would love to meet Marilyn Monroe. Well, as if from out of a top hat, McCullers is able to produce the superstar of the screen because she and Monroe had become fast friends five years before when they stayed in the same hotel.
Wait, what? Why had the unlikely friendship of hammered author and luminous starlet not been mentioned earlier? The biography is littered with moments in which readers are supposed to roll with the narrative and not ask questions or exercise critical judgment. I'm certain that condensing so much source material into as readable a volume as this is hard work: it's just a pity that with all of the writer's newly-available journals and letters, Dearborn withholds so much of McCullers' own words.
While I've been a longtime fan of her fiction, McCullers' life, after childhood, falls into a repetitive pattern in which the author heads to Yaddo, or France, or the UK, to write. She drinks to excess and alienates her hosts. She'll fall madly and passionately in love with an older woman, usually an author herself. Her layabout bisexual husband will show up, and the two will drink and brawl violently before separating. Then McCullers will end up in the hospital and Tennessee Williams will pop out of the nearby scenery to utter a bitchy quip about her to his friends. Rinse and repeat, ad nauseum.
While Dearborn does her level best to narrate McCullers' wearying cycle of artistic creation and personal destruction, there are multiple points throughout in which we're asked to trust Dearborn's assessments without any primary documentation.
There's an incident in which, for example, McCullers writes from France to her husband in the U.S., asking him to purchase for her a specific type of ring. She's left her wedding ring in her upstate New York home, she tells him. He can size it from that. To me it sounds innocuous enough, but Dearborn characterizes the letter as sheer spite in penned form, in which McCullers is flaunting her same-sex affairs in a passive-aggressive manner to a man made shaky from alcoholism. I mean, sure. She could be. But when I make meatballs from scratch, I take off my wedding ring and sometimes forget it on the windowsill and it's not because I'm trying to destroy my marriage. A reader can't really judge tone and decide for themselves whether or not McCullers is being vicious when they never at any point get to read a word of those letters.
In another confrontation, when McCullers asks a mutual male friend to join her and her husband in the bedroom, Dearborn characterizes the move as 'purely malicious,' designed to complicate the couple's already-Byzantine love life. Yet from my perspective, it might have been McCullers attempting to give her husband freedom to explore his tortured bisexuality with his wife present—her attempt in a repressive era to create for him a safe and face-saving environment. Who knows where the truth lies? The reader never will, because we're expected to take Dearborn's schoolmarm judgment at face value, without any real documentation to back it up.
It's not as if Dearborn is exactly a reliable narrator, either. There's a point late in the biography when McCullers invites Isak Dinesen (of Out of Africa) to a meal and learns that the elderly author would love to meet Marilyn Monroe. Well, as if from out of a top hat, McCullers is able to produce the superstar of the screen because she and Monroe had become fast friends five years before when they stayed in the same hotel.
Wait, what? Why had the unlikely friendship of hammered author and luminous starlet not been mentioned earlier? The biography is littered with moments in which readers are supposed to roll with the narrative and not ask questions or exercise critical judgment. I'm certain that condensing so much source material into as readable a volume as this is hard work: it's just a pity that with all of the writer's newly-available journals and letters, Dearborn withholds so much of McCullers' own words.
April 22, 2024
I picked this up after I read a review in the NYT Book Review as well as seeing Bill Goldstein discussing it on his Sunday segment on WNBC. I had read 3 of Carson McCullers' novels and had planned a trip with the Book Cougars to the town of Nyack, NY where Carson had owned a house where she spent the last years of her life. This biography is an exhaustive explanation of her life, especially her writing years and process. She lived only until 50 and was ill from her early 20s onward. In addition, she had a difficult marriage and was conflicted about her sexuality, not fully living as a lesbian until the latter part of her life. Overhanging all was her alcohol use. Her family all used alcohol, most to the point of abuse. Carson's alcohol use was never discussed or addressed by anyone in her family, but it was such a major factor and perhaps prevented her form writing more than she did. As well, her contentious relationship with her husband Reeve was fueled by alcohol. Living in the mid 20th Century, Carson was unable to avail herself of advances in medical care which were beginning to develop and become more widely available. Born 10 years later, she may have lived a longer healthier life. Overall, this is a well-written biography of an under appreciated mid-century novelist.
March 25, 2024
The author apparently has done tremendous and thorough research on Carson McCuller. I really appreciate her devotion, but it is a little bit crowded with overwhelming details, maybe just to me. The poignant, the talented Carson McCuller has shown the reader her full yet sad life, with so many lovers and friends in and out of her life. She has been through a lot ever since she was 20 and physical pain along the way has contributed to her addition to alcohol and emotional unstableness. I find myself not be able to keep up with the people she encountered in the book.
May 16, 2024
Carson McCullers is a writer whose life and work has interested me off and on since I first came across her in high school, with (I believe) either a brief mention in an English class devoted to Southern literature or even a reading of one of her short stories. At any rate, I always meant to read her work, and earlier this year I finally read her masterpiece, "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter." Now, thanks to this biography, I finally have a deeper sense of the woman behind the words.
"Carson McCullers: A Biography," by Mary V. Dearborn, places Carson's queerness front and center as the engine for her creativity and as the fuel for her lust for life and love. Married young to Reeves McCullers, the former Lula Carson Smith was more than likely lesbian or bisexual, with a preference for women (most of her crushes or loves were other women, from her piano teacher during her adolescent years to her psychiatrist during her last decade of life), and many of her friends, from Tennessee Williams to Truman Capote, were gay men. McCullers often wrote about the "misfits" of life, marginalized people who could not live openly in her era (from the late Thirties until her death in 1967), and she was also much more open-minded and perceptive of race relations at the time than many of her white contemporaries.
Dearborn writes best when describing the complicated love between Carson and Reeves, who himself struggled with his bisexuality and his off-and-on relationship with his writer wife. Unable to find an outlet for his own creativity, Reeves ultimately became Carson's first reader and biggest supporter, but he killed himself in 1953, and their tangled web of marriage, divorce, remarriage and affairs on both sides contributed to his untimely demise in many ways. For Carson, a case of strep throat not caught at the time eventually paved the way for the strokes that would disable her gradually over the course of her adulthood, resulting in an invalid situation over which she had little control.
But the work never stopped; beginning with her earliest efforts, Carson McCullers was born to be a writer, documenting the lives of those around her (and her own) in her prose. From the minute "Lonely Hunter" was published, Carson was a literary wonder, and while the quality of her later work is hard for me to judge (I haven't read much of it yet), her debut novel is still one of the best to come out of American literature. Reading this book gives me a greater impetus to read her other works and to judge for myself what their quality is.
The book does meander at times, repeating an anecdote here and there (perhaps to remind us or to provide context) and the chronology of Carson's life is sometimes hard to follow. But these are minor complaints, and the overall quality of the book lies in its care and warmth towards the subject and her complicated, compromised-by-health life. Carson McCullers deserves to be in the discussion for "great American novelists," and this biography goes a long way towards making that case.
"Carson McCullers: A Biography," by Mary V. Dearborn, places Carson's queerness front and center as the engine for her creativity and as the fuel for her lust for life and love. Married young to Reeves McCullers, the former Lula Carson Smith was more than likely lesbian or bisexual, with a preference for women (most of her crushes or loves were other women, from her piano teacher during her adolescent years to her psychiatrist during her last decade of life), and many of her friends, from Tennessee Williams to Truman Capote, were gay men. McCullers often wrote about the "misfits" of life, marginalized people who could not live openly in her era (from the late Thirties until her death in 1967), and she was also much more open-minded and perceptive of race relations at the time than many of her white contemporaries.
Dearborn writes best when describing the complicated love between Carson and Reeves, who himself struggled with his bisexuality and his off-and-on relationship with his writer wife. Unable to find an outlet for his own creativity, Reeves ultimately became Carson's first reader and biggest supporter, but he killed himself in 1953, and their tangled web of marriage, divorce, remarriage and affairs on both sides contributed to his untimely demise in many ways. For Carson, a case of strep throat not caught at the time eventually paved the way for the strokes that would disable her gradually over the course of her adulthood, resulting in an invalid situation over which she had little control.
But the work never stopped; beginning with her earliest efforts, Carson McCullers was born to be a writer, documenting the lives of those around her (and her own) in her prose. From the minute "Lonely Hunter" was published, Carson was a literary wonder, and while the quality of her later work is hard for me to judge (I haven't read much of it yet), her debut novel is still one of the best to come out of American literature. Reading this book gives me a greater impetus to read her other works and to judge for myself what their quality is.
The book does meander at times, repeating an anecdote here and there (perhaps to remind us or to provide context) and the chronology of Carson's life is sometimes hard to follow. But these are minor complaints, and the overall quality of the book lies in its care and warmth towards the subject and her complicated, compromised-by-health life. Carson McCullers deserves to be in the discussion for "great American novelists," and this biography goes a long way towards making that case.
April 2, 2024
Detailed, almost too much so, for this tortured genius. I kept wishing she's been born later in the century - perhaps she would have found more peace 0r support as a non-binary, gay, possibly-trans person had she been alive today. Watching her slowly kill herself, watching her body cease to support her brilliance - a devastating book about a writer whose skills and observations were on-point about everyone but herself and her husband.
May 20, 2024
An exhaustive, well written biography of what seemed to be an exhausting, well acclaimed writer.
March 23, 2024
A beautiful, fascinating read.
April 5, 2024
Just started. And am immediately reminded why Mary Dearborn is my favorite biographer. Her research, her writing style, the way she weaves stories together -- what a wonderful book. It makes me want to go back and read Caron McCullers's works (but not until I finish this book).
...and I've just finished, And what an amazing biography. So much I thought I knew about Carson McCullers that I didn't, and it was great to learn about the life moments, events, and influences that shaped her person and her writing. I cannot recommend this highly enough.
...and I've just finished, And what an amazing biography. So much I thought I knew about Carson McCullers that I didn't, and it was great to learn about the life moments, events, and influences that shaped her person and her writing. I cannot recommend this highly enough.
June 2, 2024
Sometimes you don’t want to know more about people you admire.
March 4, 2024
Ernest Hemingway. Willa Cather. Ralph Ellison. Truman Capote. William Faulkner. These are just some of the authors who have shaped and led the American literary canon for decades. Another is Carson McCullers, perhaps one of the most consistently underrated wunderkinds of our country’s cultural legacy. The author of novels, plays and short stories that will maintain their integrity and forever be a prime example of creativity unbounded, McCullers had a tumultuous and often uncomfortable life, albeit a short one.
In this, the first comprehensive biography of McCullers’ life and work in more than 20 years, Mary V. Dearborn presents the most well-rounded and perceptive look at this enigmatic genius. Pulling from the reports of McCullers’ personal adventures in therapy, she offers a portrait of a troubled woman whose issues and diseases eventually were turned into literary gold.
From THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER, her first highly celebrated published novel, to THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING, the play that launched a young Julie Harris to stardom, to THE BALLAD OF THE SAD CAFÉ, one of the most outlier love stories ever put to paper, McCullers studied and paid tribute to the world of the outsider, bringing stories about loners and social outcasts and their non-trivial struggles to the fore. She started with a strong relationship with Whit Burnett, the editor of Story magazine, who had read her work in her classes with him at Columbia University. The young woman from the Deep South spoke in a poetic and pure voice that would draw attention to her at a very early age. Barely out of her teens, McCullers was becoming a cause célèbre.
The cast of characters who surrounded her was just as far-reaching and famous: her gay husband, Reeves, who struggled to write and excelled at drinking; her beautiful and supportive mom, Bébé, also a category-one alcoholic; her good friends, playwright Tennessee Williams and bawdy performer Gypsy Rose Lee; and her supporter and celebrator, the wondrous Isak Dinesen. McCullers ran in celebrated circles, smoked and drank, and wrote her way into their lives and hearts with a bravado befitting this almost six-foot-tall queen of language and storytelling. Although downed by her substance abuse and myriad physical ailments, she lived and loved her life to the fullest, dying at a young age with so many successes behind her.
From her first attempts at writing to the first woman she ever loved and lost to the psychological profile from her very own therapist, CARSON McCULLERS enumerates her strange and elegant oddness without judgment. Dearborn’s writing style is smooth, engaging and easy to follow. The author’s ability to define McCullers bit by bit, giving such a real look at her timeline and her shifting personalities and demeanors --- depending on the relationship and the writing she was involved in at the time --- allows readers an opportunity to feel as if they are very much following in her footsteps as she moves through her complicated but celebrated life. Her politics, sexuality and ability to write from extreme vulnerability, with touches of comedy and satire as well as profound seriousness, are on constant display here. There is not one moment when Dearborn lets go of the reins.
I named my child after McCullers, sometimes wishing that I hadn’t been a fan of someone with such big problems and lofty talents, but there is no one else like her in American literary history. Spanning the decades, she created her own permanent niche, a world of the Deep South full of hard-won convictions and dreamy hopes for romance among too many glasses of wine, and a cultural history that included racism and misogyny, which she isn’t afraid to explore and expose.
McCullers would have been quite comfortable in today’s world, probably coming out as non-binary or trans along the way. The difficulty of growing up a girl in the 20th century is not lost on her or on us. Her exploits, manipulations and resolve showed how hard she worked to be her authentic self, even when it lost her important relationships. CARSON McCULLERS is an exemplary and thorough look at the life of one of the greatest novelists of all time. It’s a big book full of big ideas that needs to be read, page by page, like all good biographies should.
Don’t miss out on this excellent tome.
Reviewed by Jana Siciliano
In this, the first comprehensive biography of McCullers’ life and work in more than 20 years, Mary V. Dearborn presents the most well-rounded and perceptive look at this enigmatic genius. Pulling from the reports of McCullers’ personal adventures in therapy, she offers a portrait of a troubled woman whose issues and diseases eventually were turned into literary gold.
From THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER, her first highly celebrated published novel, to THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING, the play that launched a young Julie Harris to stardom, to THE BALLAD OF THE SAD CAFÉ, one of the most outlier love stories ever put to paper, McCullers studied and paid tribute to the world of the outsider, bringing stories about loners and social outcasts and their non-trivial struggles to the fore. She started with a strong relationship with Whit Burnett, the editor of Story magazine, who had read her work in her classes with him at Columbia University. The young woman from the Deep South spoke in a poetic and pure voice that would draw attention to her at a very early age. Barely out of her teens, McCullers was becoming a cause célèbre.
The cast of characters who surrounded her was just as far-reaching and famous: her gay husband, Reeves, who struggled to write and excelled at drinking; her beautiful and supportive mom, Bébé, also a category-one alcoholic; her good friends, playwright Tennessee Williams and bawdy performer Gypsy Rose Lee; and her supporter and celebrator, the wondrous Isak Dinesen. McCullers ran in celebrated circles, smoked and drank, and wrote her way into their lives and hearts with a bravado befitting this almost six-foot-tall queen of language and storytelling. Although downed by her substance abuse and myriad physical ailments, she lived and loved her life to the fullest, dying at a young age with so many successes behind her.
From her first attempts at writing to the first woman she ever loved and lost to the psychological profile from her very own therapist, CARSON McCULLERS enumerates her strange and elegant oddness without judgment. Dearborn’s writing style is smooth, engaging and easy to follow. The author’s ability to define McCullers bit by bit, giving such a real look at her timeline and her shifting personalities and demeanors --- depending on the relationship and the writing she was involved in at the time --- allows readers an opportunity to feel as if they are very much following in her footsteps as she moves through her complicated but celebrated life. Her politics, sexuality and ability to write from extreme vulnerability, with touches of comedy and satire as well as profound seriousness, are on constant display here. There is not one moment when Dearborn lets go of the reins.
I named my child after McCullers, sometimes wishing that I hadn’t been a fan of someone with such big problems and lofty talents, but there is no one else like her in American literary history. Spanning the decades, she created her own permanent niche, a world of the Deep South full of hard-won convictions and dreamy hopes for romance among too many glasses of wine, and a cultural history that included racism and misogyny, which she isn’t afraid to explore and expose.
McCullers would have been quite comfortable in today’s world, probably coming out as non-binary or trans along the way. The difficulty of growing up a girl in the 20th century is not lost on her or on us. Her exploits, manipulations and resolve showed how hard she worked to be her authentic self, even when it lost her important relationships. CARSON McCULLERS is an exemplary and thorough look at the life of one of the greatest novelists of all time. It’s a big book full of big ideas that needs to be read, page by page, like all good biographies should.
Don’t miss out on this excellent tome.
Reviewed by Jana Siciliano
April 7, 2024
In the midst of my Truman Capote exploration, I ran into an author I'd forgotten about: Carson McCullers. I remembered her three great novels: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Member of the Wedding, and The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. But I soon realized I knew nothing about the author herself. I checked out Mary V. Dearborn's biography to educate myself.
McCullers, born Lula Carson Smith, was, like Capote and Faulkner, a writer in the Southern Gothic tradition. Her fiction is filled with misfits and freaks. These characters are, in many ways, reflections of the author herself. McCullers' mother, Bebe, was convinced from the beginning that her daughter was a prodigy. Lula learned to play piano at an early age, and Bebe felt this was her great talent. McCullers' original career plan was concert pianist, conductor, and composer. She abandoned this dream when she decided that her piano teacher, Mary Tucker, had abandoned her by moving when her husband was transferred. Instead, she decided to become a writer. Like Capote, she was a wunderkind, emerging in a bright flash and fizzling out quickly.
When she and Reeves McCullers met, the two fell immediately and passionately in love. Their marriage was problematic from the start, as both had attractions to members of the same sex. Reeves, however, was devoted to Carson. Dearborn quotes Reeves' letters to Carson extensively, and it's clear the man was passionate about his wife, though not necessarily sexually. Their bisexual tendencies aside, the McCullerses had problems with drinking. Both were alcoholics. Carson began her days with a cup of tea laced with gin. She drank sherry throughout the day. Her evenings were for bourbon.
In addition to alcoholism, McCullers suffered the aftereffects of scarlet fever, which developed after strep throat. This now-preventable childhood disease damaged her heart valves and left her vulnerable to stroke--she had her first at age 30. Subsequent strokes left her partially paralyzed on her left side. The strokes probably also contributed to her slurred speech, though she drank so much it's hard to know. At 30, McCullers' best work was behind her.
In the world of sad fucks, McCullers might be the saddest of all. She had been badly spoiled by her mother, and she continued to demand to be cared for like a child all her life. Before he died (young and tragically), Reeves dressed her, bathed her, and carried her to bed. After Reeves' death, Bebe returned to care for her daughter. When Bebe died, a series of friends and a live-in companion took on the duties. These friends included Tennessee Williams, who seemed to connect McCullers with his sister, Rose, and her psychiatrist turned lover Mary Mercer.
As if these problems weren't enough, McCullers suffered from breast cancer and anorexia. At the end of her life, she was 5'8" and 70 pounds. A final stroke ended her life when she was 50.
Like the characters in her novels, Carson McCullers was always lonely, always searching for a connection. She was as much a misfit and freak as any of them. Is it worth, I wonder, to be an artist, when such suffering attends it?
McCullers, born Lula Carson Smith, was, like Capote and Faulkner, a writer in the Southern Gothic tradition. Her fiction is filled with misfits and freaks. These characters are, in many ways, reflections of the author herself. McCullers' mother, Bebe, was convinced from the beginning that her daughter was a prodigy. Lula learned to play piano at an early age, and Bebe felt this was her great talent. McCullers' original career plan was concert pianist, conductor, and composer. She abandoned this dream when she decided that her piano teacher, Mary Tucker, had abandoned her by moving when her husband was transferred. Instead, she decided to become a writer. Like Capote, she was a wunderkind, emerging in a bright flash and fizzling out quickly.
When she and Reeves McCullers met, the two fell immediately and passionately in love. Their marriage was problematic from the start, as both had attractions to members of the same sex. Reeves, however, was devoted to Carson. Dearborn quotes Reeves' letters to Carson extensively, and it's clear the man was passionate about his wife, though not necessarily sexually. Their bisexual tendencies aside, the McCullerses had problems with drinking. Both were alcoholics. Carson began her days with a cup of tea laced with gin. She drank sherry throughout the day. Her evenings were for bourbon.
In addition to alcoholism, McCullers suffered the aftereffects of scarlet fever, which developed after strep throat. This now-preventable childhood disease damaged her heart valves and left her vulnerable to stroke--she had her first at age 30. Subsequent strokes left her partially paralyzed on her left side. The strokes probably also contributed to her slurred speech, though she drank so much it's hard to know. At 30, McCullers' best work was behind her.
In the world of sad fucks, McCullers might be the saddest of all. She had been badly spoiled by her mother, and she continued to demand to be cared for like a child all her life. Before he died (young and tragically), Reeves dressed her, bathed her, and carried her to bed. After Reeves' death, Bebe returned to care for her daughter. When Bebe died, a series of friends and a live-in companion took on the duties. These friends included Tennessee Williams, who seemed to connect McCullers with his sister, Rose, and her psychiatrist turned lover Mary Mercer.
As if these problems weren't enough, McCullers suffered from breast cancer and anorexia. At the end of her life, she was 5'8" and 70 pounds. A final stroke ended her life when she was 50.
Like the characters in her novels, Carson McCullers was always lonely, always searching for a connection. She was as much a misfit and freak as any of them. Is it worth, I wonder, to be an artist, when such suffering attends it?
June 26, 2024
This book broke my heart.
I've read a fair amount of McCullers' writing in the past few months. Having read this biography one thing is clear: Carson McCullers wrote what she knew.
She herself was a tragic figure, struggling with her sexuality, alcohol and being completely unprepared for the level of fame she reached in her early 20's.
She was unlucky, getting strep throat at a young age in the era before easy treatment, which led to strokes and other health issues in her (short) adult life.
She was surrounded by enablers and abusers. Her husband was abusive, manipulative, and codependent. They seemed to bring out the worst in each other, mostly due to alcohol abuse.
She may have been sexually abused as a child, she was certainly taunted and let down by close family members because of her own sexuality.
The list goes on, but you get the point.
In the collection of McCullers' short stories I read a few weeks ago, the story that stuck out to me most was Who Has Seen the Wind. It's about Ken Harris, a writer whose debut was a great success and follow up was a flop. He's drinking himself into oblivion, threatening suicide and destroying his marriage and friendships. There's no hope or redemption in the story. It's a brutal, depressing read.
Every aspect of this story has a parallel in McCullers' life. She was never really able to achieve the success of her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. Her drinking alienated so many of her friends and supporters. Her husband and several other loved ones took their own lives. Her life after fame was characterised mostly by pain, emotional (alcoholism, failed marriage and friendship), physical (multiple strokes and disability issues) and professional (critical failures and difficulty writing).
McCullers found happiness at the end of her life, with a stable and healthy romantic relationship, solid friendships and apparent sobriety. She died, apparently at peace, at age 50.
The book is a detailed and exhaustive account of her life. While Dearborn seems to have an outdated understanding of LGBTQ+ issues (she uses 'sexual preference' regularly, and spends a portion of the epilogue speculating about whether McCullers would be transgender if she was alive today), she has great empathy for her subjects. Even manipulative, abusive, codependent husband Reeves is treated in much the same way that McCullers treated her fictional characters -- as flawed, well-intentioned, broken people, doing their best.
Dearborn's biography is bookended by photos that bring me to tears, even a full day after finishing it: the cover shot, where a young Carson looks healthy, thoughtful and optimistic, and one of the last photos (on page 402), where she's bedridden and about 70lbs, but looks ecstatic to be with her friend John Huston in Ireland.
If you've read anything by McCullers (and you should), this is a devastating, gorgeous and detailed look at how her life was reflected in her work.
I've read a fair amount of McCullers' writing in the past few months. Having read this biography one thing is clear: Carson McCullers wrote what she knew.
She herself was a tragic figure, struggling with her sexuality, alcohol and being completely unprepared for the level of fame she reached in her early 20's.
She was unlucky, getting strep throat at a young age in the era before easy treatment, which led to strokes and other health issues in her (short) adult life.
She was surrounded by enablers and abusers. Her husband was abusive, manipulative, and codependent. They seemed to bring out the worst in each other, mostly due to alcohol abuse.
She may have been sexually abused as a child, she was certainly taunted and let down by close family members because of her own sexuality.
The list goes on, but you get the point.
In the collection of McCullers' short stories I read a few weeks ago, the story that stuck out to me most was Who Has Seen the Wind. It's about Ken Harris, a writer whose debut was a great success and follow up was a flop. He's drinking himself into oblivion, threatening suicide and destroying his marriage and friendships. There's no hope or redemption in the story. It's a brutal, depressing read.
Every aspect of this story has a parallel in McCullers' life. She was never really able to achieve the success of her first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. Her drinking alienated so many of her friends and supporters. Her husband and several other loved ones took their own lives. Her life after fame was characterised mostly by pain, emotional (alcoholism, failed marriage and friendship), physical (multiple strokes and disability issues) and professional (critical failures and difficulty writing).
McCullers found happiness at the end of her life, with a stable and healthy romantic relationship, solid friendships and apparent sobriety. She died, apparently at peace, at age 50.
The book is a detailed and exhaustive account of her life. While Dearborn seems to have an outdated understanding of LGBTQ+ issues (she uses 'sexual preference' regularly, and spends a portion of the epilogue speculating about whether McCullers would be transgender if she was alive today), she has great empathy for her subjects. Even manipulative, abusive, codependent husband Reeves is treated in much the same way that McCullers treated her fictional characters -- as flawed, well-intentioned, broken people, doing their best.
Dearborn's biography is bookended by photos that bring me to tears, even a full day after finishing it: the cover shot, where a young Carson looks healthy, thoughtful and optimistic, and one of the last photos (on page 402), where she's bedridden and about 70lbs, but looks ecstatic to be with her friend John Huston in Ireland.
If you've read anything by McCullers (and you should), this is a devastating, gorgeous and detailed look at how her life was reflected in her work.
January 11, 2024
Carson McCullers
A Life
by Mary V. Dearborn
Pub Date 27 Feb 2024
Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor,Knopf
Biographies & Memoirs
Knopf and Netgalley sent me Carson McCullers: A Life for review:
Based on newly available letters and journals, this is the first major biography of one of America's greatest writers in over twenty years
She was called a genius by V.S Pritchett. According to Gore Vidal, she's a "beloved novelist of singular brilliance. “Of all the Southern writers, she is the most likely to endure.” Tennessee Williams said, “The only real writer the South ever produced was Carson.”
Originally from Columbus, Georgia, she was born Lula Carson Smith. Although she'd been writing since she was sixteen, and music was evident throughout her work, her dream was to become a concert pianist. When she was a kid, she said she'd been "born a man." When she was 20, she married Reeves McCullers, a fellow southerner, ex-soldier, and aspiring writer. Twelve years of tumultuous marriage ended with his suicide in 1953. As devoted as Reeves was to her and her writing, he envied her talent; she craved attention, mostly from women who admired her but didn't like her. Carson McCullers' first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, was published in 1940, when she was 23. Overnight, she became the most talked-about writer.
Even though McCullers's literary reputation remains intact, she has remained enigmatic and mostly unexplored in her private life. Now, with unprecedented access to the cache of materials that have surfaced in the past decade, Mary Dearborn gives us the first full picture of this brilliant, complex artist who was decades ahead of her time, a writer who understood—and captured—the heart and longing of the outcast.
I give Carson Mcullers: A Life five out of five stars!
Happy Reading!
A Life
by Mary V. Dearborn
Pub Date 27 Feb 2024
Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor,Knopf
Biographies & Memoirs
Knopf and Netgalley sent me Carson McCullers: A Life for review:
Based on newly available letters and journals, this is the first major biography of one of America's greatest writers in over twenty years
She was called a genius by V.S Pritchett. According to Gore Vidal, she's a "beloved novelist of singular brilliance. “Of all the Southern writers, she is the most likely to endure.” Tennessee Williams said, “The only real writer the South ever produced was Carson.”
Originally from Columbus, Georgia, she was born Lula Carson Smith. Although she'd been writing since she was sixteen, and music was evident throughout her work, her dream was to become a concert pianist. When she was a kid, she said she'd been "born a man." When she was 20, she married Reeves McCullers, a fellow southerner, ex-soldier, and aspiring writer. Twelve years of tumultuous marriage ended with his suicide in 1953. As devoted as Reeves was to her and her writing, he envied her talent; she craved attention, mostly from women who admired her but didn't like her. Carson McCullers' first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, was published in 1940, when she was 23. Overnight, she became the most talked-about writer.
Even though McCullers's literary reputation remains intact, she has remained enigmatic and mostly unexplored in her private life. Now, with unprecedented access to the cache of materials that have surfaced in the past decade, Mary Dearborn gives us the first full picture of this brilliant, complex artist who was decades ahead of her time, a writer who understood—and captured—the heart and longing of the outcast.
I give Carson Mcullers: A Life five out of five stars!
Happy Reading!
July 10, 2024
This is an exhaustive and exhausting biography of Carson McCullers. The research is first rate and immense. The author had at her disposal a plethora of new papers, letters and archives previously unavailable. She used them vigorously. However, at times all this inforation was overwhelming. The litany of names and places was difficult to keep track of and often seemed irrelevant. Do I really need to know the names of all the people who attended some New York party? Despite this, the author navigates the intricacies of McCuller's life in a thoughtful and compelling manner.
The author is sensitive to McCuller's life style, sexual preferences, views on love, health issues and particularly her alcoholism. Here she is almost apologetic. One can only wonder what McCullers could have achieved if she had not spent most of her life in an alcohol induced haze.
While every aspect of McCuller's life is plumbed, analysis of her works is thin. The last chapter of the book attempts to cement and expand McCuller's literary legacy. Typically her works were called Southern Gothic. Now they are included in the queer genre. That classification works on many levels. McCuller's works dealt openly with homosexuality and sexually confused individuals.
She, herself, led a sexually fluid life. In addition, McCullers created strange, queer, marginalized characters. She brought them to life and placed them front and center for all to see. Their physical oddities were weird and often grotesque, but never gratuitious. McCullers used these outward manifestations to illustrate and illuminate her characters' emotional and spiritual isolation. Something all of us can identify with. Thus, maybe her characters were not so queer after all, and for this reason her works endure.
The author is sensitive to McCuller's life style, sexual preferences, views on love, health issues and particularly her alcoholism. Here she is almost apologetic. One can only wonder what McCullers could have achieved if she had not spent most of her life in an alcohol induced haze.
While every aspect of McCuller's life is plumbed, analysis of her works is thin. The last chapter of the book attempts to cement and expand McCuller's literary legacy. Typically her works were called Southern Gothic. Now they are included in the queer genre. That classification works on many levels. McCuller's works dealt openly with homosexuality and sexually confused individuals.
She, herself, led a sexually fluid life. In addition, McCullers created strange, queer, marginalized characters. She brought them to life and placed them front and center for all to see. Their physical oddities were weird and often grotesque, but never gratuitious. McCullers used these outward manifestations to illustrate and illuminate her characters' emotional and spiritual isolation. Something all of us can identify with. Thus, maybe her characters were not so queer after all, and for this reason her works endure.
January 4, 2024
Carson McCullers: A Life by Mary V Dearborn is the type of biography I love, well-written, well-researched, and including both the positives and the negatives of the subject. It certainly helps that I've long admired McCullers' work.
Reading this made me reflect on my introduction to McCullers when I was very young. I have no doubt I didn't fully grasp the nuance of the film version of The Member of the Wedding, but it had to have been in the mid-60s when I saw it, which puts me just a few years younger than Frankie. Maybe I could relate to her, but whatever it was I loved it and as I grew up I read the rest of her work. When I watch that movie now, I always wish I could go back and find out exactly what touched me so profoundly.
Dearborn gives both a more detailed account of McCullers' life as well as a compassionately critical view of her life and career. I not only feel like I understand the writer better, I am anxious to reread the works with this new appreciation of her life. Though, admittedly, the key to her work has always been my feelings for her characters, so I don't expect any great epiphanies. I do think I will gain some insight into the characters by having this new view of McCullers.
This will certainly appeal to those who like reading about literary figures, but it is so engaging I think anyone who simply likes biographies in general will find a great deal to enjoy.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
Reading this made me reflect on my introduction to McCullers when I was very young. I have no doubt I didn't fully grasp the nuance of the film version of The Member of the Wedding, but it had to have been in the mid-60s when I saw it, which puts me just a few years younger than Frankie. Maybe I could relate to her, but whatever it was I loved it and as I grew up I read the rest of her work. When I watch that movie now, I always wish I could go back and find out exactly what touched me so profoundly.
Dearborn gives both a more detailed account of McCullers' life as well as a compassionately critical view of her life and career. I not only feel like I understand the writer better, I am anxious to reread the works with this new appreciation of her life. Though, admittedly, the key to her work has always been my feelings for her characters, so I don't expect any great epiphanies. I do think I will gain some insight into the characters by having this new view of McCullers.
This will certainly appeal to those who like reading about literary figures, but it is so engaging I think anyone who simply likes biographies in general will find a great deal to enjoy.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
August 16, 2024
Like many people, I have frequently confused Carson McCullers and Flannery O'Connor. On the surface, there are many similarities: they were both women from Georgia born within a decade of each other who wrote Southern Gothic fiction, published using a surname as a first name, suffered long-term medical maladies, and died young. I think a lot of people compare their work and find McCullers wanting. Having only read very little of McCullers's oeuvre I can't speak to whether they are correct or if, indeed, it even makes sense to make such a comparison.
But this book was a biography, not literary criticism. Why now, I wonder? McCullers has been previously thoroughly biographied and even autobiographied. Perhaps previous works were not so candid--this dame was really a piece of work! Although one feels sympathy for her physical and emotional hardships, I daresay I wouldn't have wanted to spend time with her, genius author or no. On-brand with her writing, Carson McCullers's life was in equal parts fascinating and horrifying to read about.
But this book was a biography, not literary criticism. Why now, I wonder? McCullers has been previously thoroughly biographied and even autobiographied. Perhaps previous works were not so candid--this dame was really a piece of work! Although one feels sympathy for her physical and emotional hardships, I daresay I wouldn't have wanted to spend time with her, genius author or no. On-brand with her writing, Carson McCullers's life was in equal parts fascinating and horrifying to read about.
May 16, 2024
I learned way more than I ever thought I could about Carson McCullers by reading this biography! She led a complicated and troubled life made more difficult by lifelong health problems including alcoholism, but she also led a very full life that resulted in some profoundly important writing. I read The Member of the Wedding in high school and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter as a young adult, and now I want to read them again as well as see the movies.
The minuetua of this book made for some difficult reading at times, but I'm glad I stayed with it. McCullers was ahead of her time in so many ways and her life deserves to be celebrated.
I received a finished copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review.
The minuetua of this book made for some difficult reading at times, but I'm glad I stayed with it. McCullers was ahead of her time in so many ways and her life deserves to be celebrated.
I received a finished copy of this book through a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review.
April 20, 2024
An astonishing accomplishment undergirded with excellent research, this book is a fascinating read. It is a comprehensive biography of a complicated person and artist whose body of work is brilliant and whose life was difficult and cut off at middle age. Carson was crippled by the effects of a stroke at an early age but powered on to complete her life's work under emotional and physical duress, with the help and love of many devoted people. Her husband Reeves is also fascinating to read about, though certainly a loving and tragic figure. I highly recommend this biography to lovers of 20th-century American literature, Southern American literature, and mid-20th-century culture and arts.
June 10, 2024
A very readable bio about the complicated and messy life of in incredibly self-centered writer.
McCullers seems beyond quirky, bordering on unlikable. The relationship with her husband, and how that wound up for him, sheds so much light on her view that others existed primarily to serve her needs - and, boy, was she needy.
She moved in interesting artistic circles, had ambiguous relations with many and completed the circle with some serious alcohol abuse. Somehow or other she succeeded as a writer and playwright - i.e. she had the talent but had to overcome untold distractions in the way she lived.
The author does admirable work here stitching this all together.
McCullers seems beyond quirky, bordering on unlikable. The relationship with her husband, and how that wound up for him, sheds so much light on her view that others existed primarily to serve her needs - and, boy, was she needy.
She moved in interesting artistic circles, had ambiguous relations with many and completed the circle with some serious alcohol abuse. Somehow or other she succeeded as a writer and playwright - i.e. she had the talent but had to overcome untold distractions in the way she lived.
The author does admirable work here stitching this all together.
January 26, 2026
When I saw the movie of “The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter” for the first time in my 20’s it struck me to my core and has stayed with me forever. Over the years I have read and enjoyed the book that movie was based on as well as her other stories and novels (Clock Without Hands has also stayed with me from the first time I read it).
Carson McCullers ability to write in such a way that you could picture and feel what she wanted to convey has always astounded me and reading about her life full of hardships, love and self doubts has brought a whole other layer to her works that I have read and makes me want to reread them all with this new perspective.
Carson McCullers ability to write in such a way that you could picture and feel what she wanted to convey has always astounded me and reading about her life full of hardships, love and self doubts has brought a whole other layer to her works that I have read and makes me want to reread them all with this new perspective.
December 2, 2024
This was a very good read all the way through. I found it fascinating. To me there's something interesting reading about talented people such as Carson McCullers and what life was like for them (and the people associated with them) and realizing for all their reknown and fame they have their little idiosyncrasies and insecurities but they persevered in their field, they had their bright moments. The book was written in a very factual manner which I appreciated greatly. I didn't sense BS at all. It felt to me a very honest, open look at a compelling figure.
May 20, 2025
I LOVE southern gothic literature and southern voices. I’ve only read some of her short stories but I wanted to read more about her as a person. The author is very well-written and thorough but I feel like there was so much focus on her sexuality that it felt redundant. Yes she was a bi-woman, but she’s so much more than that one aspect of her life. She was creative, emotional, manipulative, flawed, spirited, searching for love and validation. I wanted to see those aspects of her more developed.
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