Publishers Weekly
12/04/2023
Biographer Dearborn (Ernest Hemingway) delivers a penetrating portrait of Southern novelist Carson McCullers (1917–1967) as a brilliant but difficult writer whose life was marred by alcoholism and illness, which began with an untreated strep throat infection she contracted sometime before age 20 that precipitated a series of strokes throughout her life. Dearborn describes how McCullers’s mother believed her daughter was destined for greatness even before she was born, a prophecy that came true after McCullers’s first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, was released to critical acclaim when she was just 23. Calling queerness “Carson’s defining trait as an artist,” Dearborn delves into McCullers’s tumultuous romantic life, which included getting married at age 19 to Reeve McCullers, with whom she maintained an on-and-off relationship as she pursued “older, more worldly women who sometimes returned her affection but who... seldom wanted the passionate physical relationship she sought.” 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, whom she met after he wrote her a letter of admiration and who helped take care of her after her second stroke left her partially paralyzed. This skillful biography satisfies. Photos. Agent: Georges Borchardt, Georges Borchardt, Inc. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
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
APRIL 2024 - AudioFile
Barrie Kreinik performs this in-depth look at the life of literary prodigy Carson McCullers (THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER, published in 1940). Dearborn presents a complex portrait of McCullers, who grapples with a toxic marriage and alcoholism. As she finds herself eternally entangled in messy relationships--both romantic and platonic--she experiences physical and mental breakdowns that limit her creative output. Kreinik maintains listeners' attention through the many details of McCullers's successes and failures. Kreinik demonstrates her range with skill in both tender and tense moments. As McCullers continues her self-destructive downward spiral, Kreinik maintains a tone of empathy and compassion, never veering into snark. Kreinik's narration helps to create an empathic perspective on McCullers, reinforcing Dearborn's compassionate view of this complicated literary figure. K.D.W. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2023-11-11
The triumphs and tragedies of an American writer.
Drawing on abundant archival material, much not available to earlier biographers, Dearborn offers a thorough, passionate recounting of the life of Carson McCullers (1917-1967), a writer with an “unerring instinct for the outsider’s life.” As a young child, Carson (born Lula Carson Smith in Columbus, Georgia) “was marked out as special.” Her parents decided she would become a concert pianist, a goal Carson energetically pursued, though she expressed interest in being a composer or writer. In 1934, she went to New York, apparently intending to enroll at Juilliard, but she wound up taking writing classes at Columbia instead. Soon after, on a visit home, she met the handsome James Reeves McCullers, also an aspiring writer, and, like Carson, a heavy drinker. They clicked immediately, although, Dearborn notes, “in their relationship, she was emphatically the beloved.” Carson, tall and gangly, preferred to dress in men’s clothes, which she said she found more comfortable. She and Reeves married in 1937, but Carson’s most passionate attractions were to women. Her first awakening to love was for her piano teacher; she later became obsessed with the Swiss writer Annemarie Schwarzenbach, harbored “erotic feelings” for producer Cheryl Crawford, and fell in love with her therapist, a married woman. Bisexual and androgynous, Carson made gender fluidity “a thread through her major works.” Dearborn chronicles Carson’s rise to fame, including the 1940 publication of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, her friendships with the likes of Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote, and the severe health issues and alcoholism that undermined her. Strep throat in childhood led to rheumatic fever and, by the time she was 30, two major, disabling strokes. Alive to “the dangers and ecstasies of otherness,” Carson, Dearborn writes, was defined by queerness, as an artist and a woman.
A well-researched, sensitive literary biography.
