Carson McCullers

Carson McCullers was an American writer born in Columbus, Georgia, on 19 February 1917. She trained as a pianist before turning to writing, and moved to New York as a young woman. Her first novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, appeared in 1940 when she was only in her early twenties and made her famous at once. She went on to write novels, short fiction and a play, mostly set in the American South. Her work is known for its lonely, misfit characters, who long for love and understanding and often fail to find them. She wrote with compassion and a quiet, haunting precision. Illness troubled her for much of her life, including strokes that began when she was young. She died on 29 September 1967. Her books remain widely read for their emotional honesty and their sympathy for people on the edges of society.