Carson McCullers made her literary debut at age 23 with the publication of THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER (1940). The story concerns the relationships among five people living in a small town in Georgia. All are damaged spirits, struggling to find meaning in their own lives, yet paralyzed by an inability to connect on a meaningful level with other human beings or with a power greater than themselves. One critic called the book ‘the most pessimistic novel ever written’, but also ‘one of the ten greatest American novels’. It went on to become a highly acclaimed bestseller and brought McCullers to the attention of the international literary community. The theme of spiritual isolation combined with images of violence and the grotesque permeate McCullers's writing, consistent with the Southern gothic school. But she often tempers shock with mercy, striving to evoke sympathy rather than revulsion in her readers. Much of her work is autobiographical, and it is perhaps this personal identification with her characters that enables her to treat the outcast with such compassion. Her second novel, REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE, did not meet the critical expectations raised by her first, but with THE BALLAD OF THE SAD CAFÉ and THE MEMBER OF THE WEEDING, McCullers confirmed her reputation as an extraordinary literary talent. Her style, one critic said, allowed her to ‘transcend the bizarre and violent nature’ of her stories. Author Gore Vidal praised her in 1961, saying that her ‘genius for prose remains one of the few satisfying achievements of our second-rate culture’. Carson McCullers died in 1967
