A few years back, I posted about an amazing find of a 1959 audio file of Flannery O'Connor giving a lecture on "Some Aspects of the Grotesque In Southern Literature," -- taken mostly from her terrific essay in Mystery and Manners. I am very excited by another new discovery -- this time a tape buried in the back in a filing cabinet at UL Lafayette that turns out to be a recording of a 1962 lecture O'Connor gave at Lafayette. Paul Newman happened to be in town (filming The Drowning Pool) and O'Connor hosted him at the Townhouse where they were both staying.The tape has been digitally remastered -- and while we may have to wait a while to hear the entire tape (which appears to be on the Catholic writer in the Protestant South), you can hear a snippet of it at the "Deep South Magazine" website. Oh...that accent! And listen to the interview with Professor Mary Ann Wilson who stumbled upon the tape.
From Lafayette, O'Connor then went on to New Orleans, where she met with fellow Catholic author, Walker Percy. With her usual wit, she wrote to a friend about New Orleans saying that she could see herself living there as “the devil’s influence is freely recognized.”
Midori Snyder is the author of nine books for children and adults, published in English, French, Dutch, and Italian. She won the Mythopoeic Award for The Innamorati, a novel inspired by early Roman myth and the Italian "Commedia dell'Arte" tradition....
