Flannery O'Connor

Very scarce signed first paperback edition of O'Connor's second and final novel, the last book published in her lifetime.

• Flannery O'Connor (American).
• (New York): Signet / New American Library, (1961).
• 160 pages.
• Signed by O'Connor on title page.
• Original pictorial wrappers, all edges tinted red, Signet D1937.

"Jesus. Jesus this and Jesus that."

While still writing The Violent Bear It Away, O'Connor referred to the novel as her "Opus Nauseous"; by the time the manuscript was complete, she was left "in that state of not knowing whether it works or is the worst novel ever written." To the novelist John Hawkes, she wrote, "I don't think many people will like it, but it will mean something to me if a few people do," and upon correcting the proofs, "await[ed] the critical reception with distaste and unanticipation." In fact, the top end of critical reception was (and is) hugely favorable, but O'Connor was able to console herself with the strong suspicion that those who praised it did not understand it.

This edition's rather restrained cover shares a color scheme and several design elements with the first edition dust jacket, of which O'Connor commented: "On an evil red-lavender background, the face of Francis Marion Tarwater in black wool hat peers out through some clay-colored corn. Very suggestive of the School of Southern Degeneracy but it could be worse." O'Connor died in 1964, thus copies of this 1961 paperback edition are unfrequently found signed.