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Title details for Carson McCullers by Mary V. Dearborn - Available

Carson McCullers

A Life

by Mary V. Dearborn
Barrie Kreinik
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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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.
Cover image: Carson McCullers, 1940 [detail] by Louise Dahl-Wolfe © 2024 Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents / Artists Rights Society (ARS)

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 27, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593825396
      • File size: 438968 KB
      • Duration: 15:14:30

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Barrie Kreinik performs this in-depth look at the life of literary prodigy Carson McCullers (THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER, published in 1940). Dearborn presents a complex portrait of McCullers, who grapples with a toxic marriage and alcoholism. As she finds herself eternally entangled in messy relationships--both romantic and platonic--she experiences physical and mental breakdowns that limit her creative output. Kreinik maintains listeners' attention through the many details of McCullers's successes and failures. Kreinik demonstrates her range with skill in both tender and tense moments. As McCullers continues her self-destructive downward spiral, Kreinik maintains a tone of empathy and compassion, never veering into snark. Kreinik's narration helps to create an empathic perspective on McCullers, reinforcing Dearborn's compassionate view of this complicated literary figure. K.D.W. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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