Flannery O’Connor, Seamstress.

In Flannery O’Connor’s high school home ec class, “all the other girls busily sewed aprons, or underwear, for weeks on end, while O’Connor sat idly off to the side, not particpating.” On the day the big sewing assignment (to make a complete outfit of clothing) was due, O’Connor astonished her teachers and fellow students by bringing her pet duck, along with a complete set of clothing tailormade for it, to class. The students all worked together to dress the duck up in his handmade finery, and of course, Flannery passed the course!

I learned this tale and many more in Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor by Brad Gooch. If you are a fan of Flannery O’Connor’s stories and are interested in learning more about this reclusive writer’s craft—literary and otherwise—I recommend this biography. Gooch uncovers telling details of this talented and disciplined eccentric’s subtle and surprising creative energies. Gooch also does the unexpected—he shows her to be a ham in home ec.

(You’ll find the duck tailoring anecdote on pages 77-78 of Gooch’s biography, and Gooch himself found it in an unpublished memoir by Barbara Beiswanger, held at Georgia College & State University’s Ina Dillard Russell Library).