Flannery O'Connor

Object Details

Artist

Joseph Reshower, 6 Jul 1921 - 1 Jan 2006

Sitter

Flannery O'Connor, 25 Mar 1925 - 3 Aug 1964

Exhibition Label

Born Savannah, Georgia

During her relatively short life (she was chronically ill with lupus), Flannery O’Connor created a distinctive voice as a writer of novels and short fiction; she is especially important for the quality of personal and religious redemption that animates her writing, a product of her Catholicism.

After college in Georgia she attended the famous writing program at the University of Iowa (1945–47), drawing on her thesis for her first published short story and novel, Wise Blood (1952). Her first collection of stories was A Good Man Is Hard to Find (1955); her second, Everything That Rises Must Converge, was published posthumously in 1965. Despite her spare output, O’Connor is considered a master at the craft of American writing.

Created by Atlanta-based photographer Joseph Reshower, this portrait appeared on the book jacket for O’Connor’s The Complete Stories. Published after the author’s death, the anthology received the National Book Award in 1972.

Credit Line

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; acquired through a partial gift by John Daniel Reaves

1961

Object number

NPG.2012.41

Restrictions & Rights

© Estate of Joseph Reshower De Casseres/PCAphoto.com.

Type

Photograph

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Dimensions

Image/Sheet: 17.8 x 18.5 cm (7 x 7 5/16")

Mount: 30.2 x 26.6 cm (11 7/8 x 10 1/2")

National Portrait Gallery

Topic

Costume\Dress Accessory\Eyeglasses

Flannery O'Connor: Female

Flannery O'Connor: Literature\Writer

Portrait

Record ID

npg_NPG.2012.41

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