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Carson McCullers, considered to be among the most significant American writers of the twentieth century writing in the American Southern gothic genre.

She is best known for her novels The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, Reflections in a Golden Eye, and The Member of the Wedding, all published between 1940 and 1946. At least four of her works have been made into films.


McCullers's work is often described as Southern Gothic and indicative of her Southern roots. Critics also describe her writing and eccentric characters as universal in scope.

Assessing McCullers's stature in American arts and letters, biographer Virginia Spencer Carr wrote: "Critics continue to compare and contrast McCullers with Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, and Katherine Anne Porter, whom they generally consider to be better stylists in the short form than McCullers. Yet they tend to rank McCullers above her female contemporaries as a novelist.


Among her friends were W. H. Auden, Benjamin Britten, Gypsy Rose Lee and the writer couple Paul Bowles and Jane Bowles. After World War II McCullers lived mostly in Paris. Her close friends during these years included Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams. During this period of separation, Reeves had a love relationship with the composer David Diamond, and the two lived together in Rochester, New York.

McCullers fell in love with a number of women and pursued them sexually with great determination. Love letters written to McCullers from Annemarie Clarac-Schwarzenbach are at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Her most documented and extended love obsession was with Annemarie Schwarzenbach, of whom she once wrote "She had a face that I knew would haunt me for the rest of my life."

And some “Did You Know” Fun Facts 

Carson McCullers planned to attend the Juilliard School of Music. She then changed her mind, and she decided to focus on writing. She worked different jobs while taking writing classes at Columbia University and New York University. At the age of 20, she took the last name McCullers from her husband. [Born: Lula Carson Smith]

Charles Bukowski wrote a poem about Carson McCullers.

She influenced Edward Albee who adapted her novella The Ballad of the Sad Cafe into a play. It consisted of a novella and six short stories. As a Broadway play in 1964, it won six Tony Awards. 

Carson McCullers had health problems her entire life. She suffered from rheumatic fever from a young age. She was also an alcoholic. By the age of 31, her left side was paralyzed because of several strokes. She passed away after a brain bleeding on September 29, 1967.

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Ref: Wiki, New Georgia Encyclopedia


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