Carson McCullers

Sue B. Walker

Ed. by Emory Elliott, University of California, Riverside
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 19 Feb 1917
Died 29 Sep 1967
Activity 1937-1967

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Activities

Primary

Novelist
Playwright / Dramatist
Story-writer

Resources

McCullers' Works

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Marguerite Waters Smith believed that her daughter, Lula Carson Smith McCullers, would be a genius even before she was born. Reading the secret prenatal signs cultivated in her own sizzling brainpan, Mrs. Smith believed the baby would be a boy, a musical genius, and she would name him Enrico Caruso. When she gave birth to a daughter on February 19, 1917, she was only slightly deterred. She changed the child's name to Lula Carson Waters after her maternal grandmother, but she would be destined for greatness still. Soon she was pressing her daughter's tiny fingers on the piano keys and telling her to play. “Don't you know”, she said, “you'll be a genius someday” (Carr 4).

Nicknamed “Little Precious”, Carson McCullers was her mother's special child. Her brother, Lamar or

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1404 words

Citation: Walker, Sue B.. "Carson McCullers". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 May 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5059, accessed 26 November 2024.]