McCullers, Carson (1917-1967), was an American novelist known for her stories of small-town life in the South. Many of her characters are lonely, disappointed people. McCullers was particularly interested in adolescents who learn the meaning of loneliness while appearing to be part of a close family. The Member of the Wedding (1946), perhaps her most famous novel, portrays a 12-year-old girl experiencing the pains of growing up. Her other major themes include the search for individual identity, the nature of love, and the inevitability of death.
Many characters in McCullers’s books are lonely because they are deformed. For example, two characters in her short novel The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (1951) are a dwarf and an abnormally large woman. Her other novels—The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940), Reflections in a Golden Eye (1941), and Clock Without Hands (1961)—show the violence and pain that may accompany loneliness and lack of love. McCullers wrote two plays—an adaptation of The Member of the Wedding (1950) and The Square Root of Wonderful (1957). The Mortgaged Heart (1971) contains essays, poems, and early fiction. Her Collected Stories was published in 1987, after her death.
McCullers was born on Feb. 19, 1917, in Columbus, Georgia. Her real name was Lula Carson Smith. She married James Reeves McCullers, Jr., in 1937.
