Wildcat’s Stumbling Search for Grace

Mary Flannery O’Connor, one of the great fiction writers of the 20th century, was familiar with life’s dark side. Her father died of lupus when she was 15 years old. And in 1952, at age 25, she was given the same diagnosis, which she endured for more than a decade until her death at age 39.

Yet it was not so much her suffering that inspired her strange and sordid stories. But rather it was her interest, informed by her Catholic faith, in “the action of grace in territory held largely by the devil.”

About the Author

Madeleine Kearns

Madeleine Kearns is a former staff writer at National Review.

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Mary Flannery O’Connor, one of the great fiction writers of the 20th century, was familiar with life’s dark side. Her father died of lupus when she was 15 years old. And in 1952, at age 25, she was given the same diagnosis, which she endured for more than a decade until her death at age 39.

Yet it was not so much her suffering that inspired her strange and sordid stories. But rather it was her interest, informed by her Catholic faith, in “the action of grace in territory held largely by the devil.”