Carson McCullers

Praise

“The time is ripe, then, for a more clear-eyed appraisal [of McCullers’s life and legacy]. With Carson McCullers: A Life, Mary V. Dearborn delivers . . . Dearborn approaches her subject with admiration and also with a healthy skepticism. She’s armed with archival material unavailable to many of her predecessors.” —Maggie Doherty, The New Yorker

“A colorful and finely detailed portrait of McCullers’ public and private lives . . . Dearborn weaves careful, critical readings of McCullers’ writings with detailed descriptions of the author’s life, producing an exemplary critical biography of one of our greatest writers.”
—BookPage, starred

“A necessary book . . . [Carson McCullers: A Life] builds on [previous biographies] and considers newly released material, including letters and journals and, most tantalizingly, transcripts of McCullers’s late-life psychiatric sessions with the female doctor who would become her lover and gatekeeper . . . [The book] functions as a rich history of queer culture during the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s . . . It’s to Dearborn’s credit that she suggests McCullers’s deep humanity, her subversive talents as a writer and lonely observer, and a strong sense of what McCullers herself called ‘her sad, happy life.’” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times Book Review

“The broad strokes of Carson McCullers are: born in the South, a smash debut novel at age 23—The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, published in 1940—and a wild marriage that ended in the suicide of her jealous husband. Dearborn goes deeper here into McCullers’ life using letters and journals to build out the biography of one of the South’s great writers and offer a more complex portrait of someone who felt she was “born a man” and felt a deal of friction between her understanding of the world and that of the people in it.” —Literary Hub, “Most Anticipated Books of 2024”
 
“A landmark biography . . . [A] scrupulously researched and crafted saga of creativity, chaos, self-destruction, misery, and love . . . Dearborn deepens our appreciation for McCullers herself and her daring, resonant works.” —Booklist, starred
 
 “Biographer Dearborn (Ernest Hemingway) delivers a penetrating portrait . . . Dearborn provides astute psychological insight into McCullers, describing her as a headstrong if ‘needy’   writer who demanded ‘constant expressions of love,’ and offers a tender depiction of her close friendship with Tennessee Williams. This skillful biography satisfies.”—Publishers Weekly