LETTERS:Group of 11 items Signed, "Flannery," "M. Flannery," or "Mary Flannery": 7 Typed Letters and 4 Christmas Cards, each to her Georgia State College for Women teacher and friend George H. Haslam, on literary, religious, and personal topics.
“THE DEVIL SUPPLIES THE MATERIAL AND
THE CHURCH SUPPLIES THE ATTITUDE”
—
FLANNERY O’CONNOR TO HER COLLEGE PROFESSOR AND FRIEND
O’Connor, Flannery. Eleven Typed letters and cards signed, “Flannery,” “M. Flannery,” or
“Mary Flannery,” to George H. Haslam; original envelopes. 1952-59.
O’Connor writes from Milledgeville, GA, throughout the 1950s, to her Georgia State College for
Women professor and friend George H. Haslam, on literary, religious, and personal topics.
Haslam “Uncle George” – was O’Connor’s Journalism instructor at George State College for
Women, faculty advisorto The Corinthian, the school paper to which O’Connor contributed, and
“occasional dinner guest with the O’Connor family” (Edmonson, p. 190). The following excerpts
will give a sense of the tone and density of the correspondence, comprised of seven typed letters
and four Christmas cards.
12 October 1952: “Thank you for sending me the review. It’s always good to see a pleasant one
and also my mother has taken to collecting them when they are not frightening. Some have been
very frightening. . . .”
16 June 1955: “. . . My mother still collects [reviews] though I think just for the paper now. They
don’t scare her anymore but they sure do scare me. I used to think I was a mighty harmless girl
but now I’m always afraid I’ll find myself trying to steal somebodies wooden leg or something. I
tell myself anyhow that the tension in these stories comes from the fact that the devil supplies the
material and the Church supplies the attitude toward it. . . .”
26 July 1955: “. . . The Papists completely routed the Church of England not oncet but twict! I
haven’t heard if there were any black players on the field but I presume there were not or two
games would not have been played. . . .”
5 August 1955: “. . . [T]hanks for keeping up the good work at the bookstores. Tell them I’m
gaining on sales over Thomas Merton every minute. . . .”
2 March 1957: “Well I have seen the production and I thought it was slop of third water. I aver
that everybody connected in any way with it, except me, had a stinking pole cat for both mother
and father.
“It was well received here in the Bird Sanctuary and everybody thinks that I have now
arrived…”
15 November 1958: “I am thinking of going in the cut-rate peafowl dinner business--about $135 a
plate without the atmosphere. A special rate for friends and relatives of $110 a plate. . . .
“I am reading the Henry Miller with great enjoyment. I didn’t know he was actually this good a
writer. . . .”
27 February 1959: “. . . I am adjusting myself to spending Mr. Ford’s money [Ford Foundation
Grant]. It is expected to last me two years but it will last me a great many more as I am not
accustomed to living like a Ford. . . .”
Correspondence by O’Connor is scarce; unpublished letters with meaningful content to intimates
is virtually unknown.
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