Carson McCullers, American Author
Portrait of McCullers taken by Carl Van Vechten in 1959. Carson McCullers (February 19, 1917 - September 29, 1967) was an American writer. She wrote novels, short stories, and two plays, as well as essays and some poetry. Her first novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter explores the spiritual isolation of misfits and outcasts of the American South. McCullers's work is often described as Southern Gothic, but she produced her famous works after leaving the South. Her eccentric characters suffer from loneliness that is interpreted with deep empathy. She suffered throughout her life from illness, alcoholism and depression. She contracted rheumatic fever at the age of 15 and suffered from strokes that began in her youth. By the age of 31, her left side was entirely paralyzed. She died in 1967 after a brain hemorrhage. She was 50 years old
