Carson McCullers

Carson McCullers (born Lula Carson Smith, February 19, 1917 – September 29, 1967) was a renowned and prolific American novelist, poet, playwright, and essayist. She is best known for her debut novel The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (1940), which was lauded for its lyric and sensitive exploration of the spiritual isolation of its characters. This acclaimed novel was quickly followed by her second novel, Reflections in a Golden Eye (1941), which featured themes related to homosexual desires and tensions, and it was very ahead of its time. Her third novel, The Member of the Wedding (1946), was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film in 1950.

McCullers was raised in a middle-class family in Columbus, Georgia, and had dreams of becoming a writer from an early age. She moved to New York City at age 17 to pursue her ambitions, studying literature and music at Columbia University, although she left after one year to focus on cabaret singing, which she had started doing in order to financially support herself. She centred her writing around the Southern Gothic genre, a literary style focusing on the darker aspects of the American South. Her works explored complex psychological and moral issues and often featured themes around loneliness and alienation.

McCullers published six novels and several vignettes throughout her career; novels such as Clock Without Hands (1961) and The Mortgager’s Daughter (1972, posthumous) received widespread critical acclaim. Her short stories were collected in the volume The Ballad of the Sad Café (1941), which is widely considered to be a landmark in American literature; stories such as the titular "Ballad of the Sad Café" is often studied in classrooms.

McCullers wrote several plays, such as The Square Root of Wonderful (1958), which was adapted into a television film in 1997. She co-wrote the play adapted from her novel The Member of the Wedding (1950), which won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play of the Year.

McCullers also wrote many well-received essays, including Reflections on a Southern Matron (1960) and Collected Impressions (1966). Her personal essays are a candid account of her life story, including her struggles with depression, alcoholism, failed marriages, and her letters to friends and family.

Despite her many successes, McCullers’ life was oftentimes marred with unhappiness, due to her battle with lifelong mental and physical health issues. At age 39, she underwent her first lobotomy, which failed to cure her ailments and instead drastically altered her personality and writing abilities. She was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1965 and underwent numerous operations, but died from a brain hemmorhage in 1967, at age 50.

McCullers will forever be remembered for her vivid and poignant portrayals of inner emotional states—foreshadowing later literary movements such as confessional poetry and autobiographical fiction. Not only did she create detailed and sympathetic characters that still resonate with readers today, she also moved past traditional social taboos by writing about taboo themes such as homosexuality and mental illness. She left behind a remarkable legacy, and her works remain just as relevant and powerful as when they were first published.