Flannery O’Connor Reads, 1959
June 4, 2012 | by Sadie Stein
It wasn’t until Open Culture shared this 1959 recording of Flannery O’Connor reading the title story of A Good Man Is Hard to Find that we realized we didn’t know what her voice sounded like. The thirty-four-year-old author’s Georgia accent is pronounced, and she puts over the story with a deadpan panache that brings out its full humor and horror. Truly a treat for a gray day.
Shelley | June 4, 2012 at 12:49 pm
Kind of a Frida Kahlo vibe to that photo….
Clare | June 4, 2012 at 5:46 pm
This is amazing!! What a insightful treasure…
Michelle in NYC | June 4, 2012 at 11:20 pm
Thank you Sadie–these links are pure gold for anyone who loves to be read to!
Ojimenez | June 6, 2012 at 12:12 am
Hearing the actual voice of Flannery O’connor reading her work, this story in particular, was startling, endearing, and strange. Strange mainly because the voice in the recording was not the familiar voice of the author that has inhabited my mind after years of hearing her voice with my eyes, and having developed an ‘ear’ for the tone, cadence, and rhythm in which she writes her stories and her letters.
I can’t say that hearing the author read the story adds anything new to the story, except of course, the surprisingly odd addition of what I would consider a ‘laugh track’. THAT was surprising. I never envisioned the author as a performer of sorts reading to an audience.
Despite having had a face and a voice comfortably established in my mind after years of reading and studying Ms. O’connor, this recording made me wish I had had the opportunity to meet her. Although, from what I’ve read, her Georgia accent was at times impossible to understand. But her writing… Oh, her writing, the stuff of Angels.
Jane | June 8, 2012 at 7:57 am
how long is the reading?
jlpf | July 6, 2012 at 11:08 am
As I read through the book of O’Connor’s letters, “The Habit of Being,” I started noting some of my favorite quotes. Here’s one:
“Wouldn’t it be better for you to discover a meaning in what you write than to impose one? Nothing you write will lack meaning because the meaning is in you.”