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January 21, 2013
February Lecture Series 2013
The Foundation has sponsored a lecture series each February since 2006. These programs are held each Sunday in February, from 3 to 5 p.m. The lectures take place in the dining room of the main house and are followed by a light reception. These lectures have been well attended in the past and have become very popular annual events.
Feb. 3 - Dr. Bruce Gentry, Editor of the Flannery O'Connor Review at Georgia College and Chair of the Foundation's Scholars Council. Professor Gentry will give a lecture titled "The Influence of Carson McCullers and Erskine Caldwell on Flannery O'Connor."
Feb. 10 - Dr. William Mallard, Professor Emeritus of the Candler School of Theology, Emory University. Professor Mallard's lecture is titled "Flannery O'Connor and Comedy."
Feb. 17 - Patrick Samway, S.J., Professor Emeritus of English, St. Joseph's University. Father Samway will give a lecture titled "Granted that Flannery O'Connor was a Roman Catholic, Does that Automatically Mean that Her Fiction Should Be So Considered?"
Feb. 24 - Dr. Tony Martin, Honors Program Coordinator, Professor of Practice in the Department of Environmental Studies, Emory University. Professor Martin will talk about his new book, Life Traces of the Georgia Coast, (books will be available to purchase for signing) and also about tracks and traces of the birds so beloved by Flannery O'Connor: peafowl, chickens, ducks, and geese. He will also give a guided nature walk on Lower Tobler Creek Trail at Andalusia, identifying traces and tracks of wildlife found there.
November 6, 2012
What: Bluegrass at Andalusia
When: Saturday, November 10, from 5 to 8 p.m.
Admission: $5 per person
Each year since 2004, the Foundation has hosted a Bluegrass concert on the front lawn at Andalusia. If you haven't been able to make it for this event in the past, you certainly will not want to miss out on the fun this year. Please mark your calendar NOW for the next concert, coming up Saturday, November 10, from 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. Once again this year, we are indebted to Lynda Banks and Mary Anne Murray, two of the Foundation's Board members, for their sponsorship of this event. We are fortunate that Heart Pine will be returning this year to provide several hours of the best Bluegrass music you will hear in the middle Georgia area, or anywhere else, for that matter. Admission for the concert is $5 per person.
Louis Kaduk will offer a guided nature walk on Lower Tobler Creek Trail at 4:00 p.m., before the music begins. Mr. Kaduk supervised the restoration of the pond and the construction of the nature trail. The one-mile hike will begin and end at the Lower Tobler Creek Trail sign next to the driveway. A group of our fine volunteers will also be grilling hamburgers and hotdogs, provided by Sodexo at Georgia College. You can bring your own picnic or purchase food after you arrive. Bring a chair, a flashlight, and get ready for an evening of fun.
September 12, 2012
Two new Directors at Andalusia
The Board of Directors of the Flannery O'Connor-Andalusia Foundation recently elected two new Directors the Board.
Dr. William H. Fox served from 1992 until his retirement in 2005 as the Senior V.P. for Institutional Advancement at Emory University, where he also earned his Ph.D. His dissertation focused on Flannery O'Connor and Walker Percy. He serves on several nonprofit boards and is a part-time consultant for Washington University in St. Louis.
Mr. Barry Schrenk is the President of Taggart's Driving School in Tucker, Georgia. He earned a B.S. from Rider University, majoring in Business Administration. He also served in the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Navy Reserve. He is a member of several nonprofit boards, including that of The Atlanta Opera.
July 12, 2012
Andalusia receives two additional grants for the cow barn
The Flannery O'Connor-Andalusia Foundation recently received two additional grants to help rescue and stabilize the cow barn at Andalusia, the historic home of American author Flannery O'Connor in Milledgeville. The Watson-Brown Foundation Junior Board of Milledgeville announced on June 12 that it would award a $10,000 grant to help with the work on the cow barn. The Watson-Brown Foundation supports historic preservation in part through its Junior Board of Trustees, a talented group of local high school students whose exclusive mission is to preserve local history. This educational initiative fosters civic responsibility, heightens an appreciation for local history, and introduces the students to the world of philanthropy. The Junior Board has assisted with two other past restoration projects at Andalusia: the old pump house and the milk-processing shed. The officers of the Watson-Brown Foundation Junior Board will be at Andalusia at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 18, to present a check to Craig Amason, the Executive Director of the Flannery O'Connor-Andalusia Foundation, for the cow barn project. The public and the press are invited.
On July 2, the E. J. Grassmann Trust also donated $10,000 to the cow barn project. The E. J. Grassmann Trust began in 1979 and awards grants twice a year in New Jersey and in middle Georgia, with preference to hospitals, social service groups, education organizations, and land preservation organizations. The E. J. Grassmann Trust has assisted with several projects at Andalusia in the past, including the Hill house restoration and the development of the Dr. Bernard Cline Outdoor Learning Center.
The stabilization of the cow barn is the fifth restoration project at Andalusia in the last seven years. In November 2011, the Department of Economic Development and the Georgia Council for the Arts awarded Andalusia a $10,000 Tourism Product Development grant to begin work on the barn. All trees and other vegetation growing immediately adjacent to the barn threatening the structure have been removed. Heavy equipment was used to alter the landscape adjacent to the barn, which will ensure that rain water is diverted from the structure to prevent future damage. The west, north, and south exterior walls have been completely stabilized, along with several key vertical support beams in the rear and front of the barn. Sagging rooflines were carefully raised to their original levels and stabilized with new support beams. Several failing interior vertical support beams have been reinforced or replaced. The bent and broken rafters on the west shed addition have been paired with new beams to restore the roof elevation and to better bear to roof's load. The northwest and southwest corners of the barn had almost completely failed and had to be disassembled and rebuilt. The doors on the west, north, and south sides of the barn have been rebuilt and reinstalled using the original hardware. Some of the exterior siding has been repaired or replaced and secured to the structure. The replaced siding used is either original or vintage, reclaimed from other similar structures on farms in Georgia that were recently demolished. This careful attention to detail is in keeping with the U.S. Department of Interior's Standards for Historic Preservation, which the Foundation is committed to following as closely as possible. The next phase of the cow barn project will focus on salvaging the milking parlor. The contractor for the cow barn work is Allen Construction Company in Milledgeville.
May 8, 2012
What: Presentation on John Huston's Wise Blood
When: May 15, at 7:00 p.m.
Where: Andalusia
This event is FREE and open to the public.
On Tuesday, May 15, beginning at 7:00 p.m., The Flannery O'Connor-Andalusia Foundation will sponsor a presentation at Andalusia by William Walsh on the filming of Wise Blood in 1979 by John Huston. Walsh is a photographer and the author of several books, including David Bottoms: Critical Essays and Interviews (McFarland, 2010). His current project is In Search of Taulkinham: Flannery O'Connor, John Huston, and Wise Blood. His essay by the same title appeared in the Flannery O'Connor Review, Volume 9 (Georgia College, 2011), along with a collection of photographs from the filming of Wise Blood in Macon, Georgia.
May 15, 2012 marks the 60th anniversary of the publication of Flannery O'Connor's first novel, Wise Blood. Huston's film adaptation stars Brad Dourif as Hazel Motes, who, fresh out of the army, attempts to open the first Church Without Christ. The screenplay was written by Michael and Benedict Fitzgerald, sons of Robert and Sally Fitzgerald, with whom Flannery O'Connor lived for a brief time in Connecticut before returning to Milledgeville for the last thirteen years of her life.
The Criterion Collection released the movie on DVD in 2009, and it includes an audio recording of Flannery O'Connor reading her short story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find." The Wise Blood DVD is available in the gift shop at Andalusia for $39.95.
May 1, 2012
The public is cordially invited to a reception at Andalusia on Monday, May 7, from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m., to celebrate the publication of At Home with Flannery O'Connor: An Oral History.
This handsome hardbound volume features interviews with people who knew Flannery O'Connor, either personally or professionally, while she lived at Andalusia, in Milledgeville, Georgia, from 1951 until her death in 1964. The book includes interviews with nearby friends who visited O'Connor and were familiar with Andalusia, such as Louise Abbot, Mary Barbara Tate, Marion Montgomery, Sister Loretta Costa, and Jack and Frances Thornton. Also included are individuals who corresponded and/or visited with O'Connor about writing and matters of faith, such as Miller Williams, Robert Giroux, Cecil Dawkins, Alfred Corn, and Ashley Brown.
The book is edited by Bruce Gentry and Craig Amason. The interviews were conducted by Frances Florencourt, Craig Amason, Alice Friman, Bruce Gentry, and Sarah Gordon. This volume also includes a collection of photographs of Flannery O'Connor and Andalusia from 1951 to the early 1960s. The black and white historical photographs were taken by Joe McTyre in 1962, and the color historical photographs were taken by Robert W. Mann in the summer of 1951, just after O'Connor moved back to Milledgeville. Contemporary photographs of Andalusia in the book were taken by Alexandria Daniecki.
Some of the interviewees and interviewers are planning to attend this reception.
The publication of At Home with Flannery O'Connor is the product of an oral history project funded by a grant from the Watson-Brown Foundation, Inc. All proceeds from sales of this book benefit The Flannery O'Connor-Andalusia Foundation, Inc. The cost of the book is $19.95, and it will be available in the gift shop at Andalusia at the reception.
April 17, 2012
Elizabeth Stuckey-French at Andalusia
What: Reading & book signing by Elizabeth Stuckey-French
When: April 26 at 7:00 p.m.
Where: Andalusia
FREE and open to the public
The Flannery O'Connor-Andalusia Foundation will host award-winning author Elizabeth Stuckey-French for a reading and book-signing reception at Andalusia on Thursday, April 26, beginning at 7:00 p.m.
Elizabeth Stuckey-French is the author of two novels, The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady and Mermaids on the Moon, as well as a collection of short stories, The First Paper Girl in Red Oak, Iowa. She is a co-author, along with Janet Burroway and Ned Stuckey-French, of Writing Fiction: A Guide to the Narrative Craft. Her short stories have appeared in The Normal School, Narrative Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Gettysburg Review, Southern Review, Five Points, and The O’Henry Prize Stories 2005. She was awarded a James Michener Fellowship and has won grants from the Howard Foundation, the Indiana Arts Foundation, and the Florida Arts Foundation. She teaches fiction writing at Florida State University.
Her latest novel is The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady. In this dark comedy wrapped inside a wacky family drama, a vengeful old lady is hell bent on murdering an even older man…who has lost his mind. Seventy-seven year old Marylou Ahearn is going to kill Dr. Wilson Spriggs come hell or high water. In 1953, he gave her a radioactive cocktail without her consent as part of a secret government study that had horrible consequences. Marylou has been plotting her revenge for fifty years when she accidentally discovers his whereabouts in Florida and her plans finally snap into action. She high-tails it to hot and humid Tallahassee, moves in down the block from where a now senile Spriggs lives with his daughter’s family, and begins the tricky work of insinuating herself into their lives. But she has no idea what a nest of yellow jackets she is stumbling into. Before the novel is through, someone will be kidnapped, an unlikely couple will get engaged, someone will nearly die from eating a pineapple upside-down cake laced with anti-freeze, and that’s not all. Told from the varied perspectives of an incredible cast of endearing oddball characters and written with the flare of a native Floridian, this is a lively, intricately plotted, laugh-out-loud funny, and surprisingly touching family drama that combines the wit of Carl Hiaasen with the southern charm of Jill McCorkle.
Copies of this novel are available for purchase in the Andalusia Gift Shop.
If you liked the film “Little Miss Sunshine,” you’ll absolutely LOVE The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady! Not only whacked-out and wonderful, this novel is secretly very damn serious, too, as well as up-to-the-minute contemporary and compelling. Elizabeth Stuckey-French brings her completely original voice and vision to the theme of family—-and revenge. I couldn’t put it down.”
– Lee Smith, bestselling author of The Last Girls and On Agate Hill
April 12, 2012
New book on Flannery O'Connor
The Flannery O'Connor-Andalusia Foundation is proud to announce the publication of At Home with Flannery O'Connor: An Oral History.
This handsome hardbound volume features interviews with people who knew Flannery O'Connor, either personally or professionally, while she lived at Andalusia, in Milledgeville, Georgia, from 1951 until her death in 1964. The book includes interviews with nearby friends who visited O'Connor and were familiar with Andalusia, such as Louise Abbot, Mary Barbara Tate, Marion Montgomery, Sister Loretta Costa, and Jack and Frances Thornton. Also included are individuals who corresponded and/or visited with O'Connor about writing and matters of faith, such as Miller Williams, Robert Giroux, Cecil Dawkins, Alfred Corn, and Ashley Brown.
The book is edited by Bruce Gentry and Craig Amason. The interviews were conducted by Frances Florencourt, Craig Amason, Alice Friman, Bruce Gentry, and Sarah Gordon. This volume also includes a collection of photographs of Flannery O'Connor and Andalusia from 1951 to the early 1960s. The black and white historical photographs were taken by Joe McTyre in 1962, and the color historical photographs were taken by Robert W. Mann in the summer of 1951, just after O'Connor moved back to Milledgeville. Contemporary photographs of Andalusia in the book were taken by Alexandria Daniecki.
The publication of At Home with Flannery O'Connor is the product of an oral history project funded by a grant from the Watson-Brown Foundation, Inc. All proceeds from sales of this book benefit The Flannery O'Connor-Andalusia Foundation, Inc. The cost of the book is $19.95. It is available in the gift shop at Andalusia (478-454-4029).
The following quotes are just a few highlights from the book.
"One of my favorite memories of her is seeing her parked in a car downtown in front of the movie house on a hot summer day, with all the windows rolled down, while her mother did shopping up and down the street, and where every passerby stopped to speak to Flannery."
Mary Barbara Tate
"She said one time—I don’t remember the character—but she said, “I had to let this person in the story, but I wouldn’t let him in my house.” That was something that brought a grin to my face. . . . We laughed a lot."
Miller Williams
"You know, many Southern women are brought up to be very gracious. And that can limit the kinds of things that you’re able to say. And she was determined not to be held in by those constraints. And if she had something to say, even though it might not seem all that nice, she said it."
Alfred Corn
"Oh, she had a marvelous sense of humor. And of course, her whole career as a cartoonist, before she wrote, was another indication of that. She was a humorist, you might say. It was part of her gift: a sense of humor and a wonderful one in my opinion."
Robert Giroux
"As different as we were, there was something we had in common that I’ve never been able to name ---- something that made us very comfortable with each other. I do think that when she knew I was coming, or when I was there, she was relaxed. And I was, too."
Louise Abbot
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