Carson McCullers, born Lula Carson Smith in Columbus, Georgia in 1917, published her first novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, in 1940 at just twenty-three years old, to great critical success. At 19 she published her first story, “Wunderkind,” in Story magazine. She went on to publish three more successful short novels, Reflections in a Golden Eye (1941), The Member of the Wedding (1946), and Clock Without Hands (1961), as well as several more short stories, plays, essays, and a collection of poetry. Her unfinished autobiography, titled Illumination and Night Glare, was published posthumously in 1999.
In his 1940 review of the novel, McCullers's friend and fellow author Richard Wright...
