ABOUT THE HOME
“Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one.” - Flannery O'Connor
Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964) was the three-time winner of the O. Henry Award and posthumous winner of the National Book Award for Fiction for The Complete Stories. She also wrote the acclaimed novels The Violent Bear It Away and Wise Blood, which was made into a movie by the legendary director John Huston.
Visitors to O’Connor’s Childhood Home, one of the few museum houses in the country that is restored to the Depression-era, receive a guided tour that reveals the quiet domestic life of the young Mary Flannery and her family.
Guests can view rare books in our Bruckheimer Library. Visitors can shop for unique books and gifts, also wander in the garden where a five-year old O’Connor famously had a chicken who walked backwards.
The Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home also offers a variety of free events throughout the year, including free Sunday lecture series in both the spring and the fall, and the Annual Ursrey Memorial Lecture, which has brought Michael Cunningham, Roxanne Gay, and Jaimy Gordon to Savannah.
In October 2010, the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home attracted international attention when we hosted Pat Conroy’s announcement of the 20 Finalists for National Book Awards.
In his introductory remarks before the announcement of the Finalists, Conroy referred to the Childhood Home as “one of the temples of world literature.”
“I consider her the greatest short story writer in the history of our republic,” said Conroy.