A Prayer Journal

In 2002, while preparing an authorized biography (not yet published) of O'Connor (1925–64), editor Sessions (English, emeritus, Georgia State Univ.; Henry Howard: The Poet Earl of Surrey; A Life), also a friend of the writer, discovered a hitherto unknown collection of her personal prayers handwritten in an ordinary school notebook. A facsimile of the notebook appears here and is preceded by a printed transcription with spelling corrections and clarifications by Sessions, who also provides an introduction. Written from June 1946 to September 1947 in Iowa City while O'Connor was taking writing workshops that led to an MFA degree that same year, these pieces address the Divinity directly with cries from the heart, asking humbly to be a fine writer. Readers will hear Flannery, age 21, expressing the depths of her own uniqueness and orthodox Catholic faith with the root themes of grace to appear in her novels and short stories. While her literary corpus is relatively small, its stature and scholarly examination continue to grow steadily. A substantial excerpt from the journal appeared recently in The New Yorker.