The Complete Stories (83 page)

He felt presently the tilt of the box as they took it off the train and got it on the baggage wagon. He made no noise yet. The train jarred and slid away. In a moment the baggage wagon was rumbling under him, carrying him back to the station side. He heard footsteps rattling closer and closer to him and he supposed that a crowd was gathering. Wait until they see this, he thought.

“That him,” Coleman said, “one of his tricks.”

“It's a damm rat in there,” Hooten said.

“It's him. Git the crowbar.”

In a moment a shaft of greenish light fell on him. He pushed through it and cried in a weak voice, “Judgement Day! Judgement Day! You idiots didn't know it was Judgement Day, did you?”

“Coleman?” he murmured.

The Negro bending over him had a large surly mouth and sullen eyes.

“Ain't any coal man, either,” he said. This must be the wrong station, Tanner thought. Those fools put me off too soon. Who is this nigger? It ain't even daylight here.

At the Negro's side was another face, a woman's—pale, topped with a pile of copper-glinting hair and twisted as if she had just stepped in a pile of dung.

“Oh,” Tanner said, “it's you.”

The actor leaned closer and grasped him by the front of his shirt. “Judgement day,” he said in a mocking voice. “Ain't no judgement day, old man. Cept this. Maybe this here judgement day for you.”

Tanner tried to catch hold of a banister-spoke to raise himself but his hand grasped air. The two faces, the black one and the pale one, appeared to be wavering. By an effort of will he kept them focused before him while he lifted his hand, as light as a breath, and said in his jauntiest voice, “Hep me up, Preacher. I'm on my way home!”

His daughter found him when she came in from the grocery store. His hat had been pulled down over his face and his head and arms thrust between the spokes of the banister; his feet dangled over the stairwell like those of a man in the stocks. She tugged at him frantically and then flew for the police. They cut him out with a saw and said he had been dead about an hour.

She buried him in New York City, but after she had done it she could not sleep at night. Night after night she turned and tossed and very definite lines began to appear in her face, so she had him dug up and shipped the body to Corinth. Now she rests well at night and her good looks have mostly returned.

Notes

THE GERANIUM.
Accent,
vol. VI, Summer 1946. The author submitted this story and “The Crop” to
Accent
on February 7, 1946, mailing them from Currier Graduate House, State University of Iowa at Iowa City. “The Geranium” is the opening story (pp. 1–21) in the typescript of her master's thesis (June 1947).

THE BARBER.
Written before June 1947.
The Atlantic,
vol. 226, no. 4, October 1970. Published with a note by Robert Fitzgerald that said: “As Miss O'Connor's literary executor … I have consented to this publication with a note making clear … the earliness of the story and its apparent standing in the estimation of the author.” Pages 21–39 in the thesis.

WILDCAT.
Written before June 1947.
The North American Review,
vol. 255, no. 1, Spring 1970. Published with the permission of Mr. Fitzgerald; pages 40–51 in the thesis.

THE CROP.
Written before February 1946.
Mademoiselle,
vol. 72, no. 6, April 1971. From the note by Mr. Fitzgerald: “Although it is obviously far from her best work,
The Crop
would never be mistaken for anyone else's production … We enjoy a small caricature of that shady type, the imaginative artist … The exacting art, the stringent spirit, and the sheer kick of her mature work are promised here.” Pages 52–66 in the thesis.

THE TURKEY.
Written before June 1947. Entitled “The Capture,”
Mademoiselle,
vol. 28, November 1948. Later reprinted in
Best Stories from Mademoiselle,
edited by Cyrilly Abels and Margarita G. Smith, New York, 1961. Pages 67–86 in the thesis.

THE TRAIN.
Written before June 1947. Entitled “Train,”
Sewanee Review,
vol. 56, April 1948. Revised and expanded to become chapter one of
Wise Blood.
The final story, pages 87–102, in the thesis.

THE PEELER.
Partisan Review,
vol. 16, December 1949. Rewritten and revised for
Wise Blood.

THE HEART OF THE PARK.
Partisan Review,
vol. 16, February 1949. Rewritten and revised for
Wise Blood.

A STROKE OF GOOD FORTUNE.
Entitled “A Woman on the Stairs,”
Tomorrow,
vol. 8, August 1949. It was reprinted under the new title in
Shenandoah,
vol. 4, Spring 1953, and appears as the fourth story in
A Good Man Is Hard to Find,
1955.

ENOCH AND THE GORILLA.
New World Writing,
edited by Arabel Porter, vol. 1, April 1952. Slightly revised for
Wise Blood.

A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND.
Modern Writing I,
edited by William Phillips and Philip Rahv, 1953. Reprinted in
The House of Fiction,
1960, edited by Caroline Gordon and Allen Tate. The opening story in the collection bearing the same title.

A LATE ENCOUNTER WITH THE ENEMY.
Harper's Bazaar,
vol. 87, September 1953. Eighth story in
A Good Man Is Hard to Find.

THE LIFE YOU SAVE MAY BE YOUR OWN.
Kenyon Review,
vol. 15, Spring 1953. Reprinted in
Prize Stories 1954: The O. Henry Awards,
edited by Paul Engle and Hansford Martin. Third story in
A Good Man Is Hard to Find.

THE RIVER.
Sewanee Review,
vol. 61, Summer 1953. Second story in
A Good Man Is Hard to Find.

A CIRCLE IN THE FIRE.
Kenyon Review,
vol. 16, Spring 1954. Reprinted in
Prize Stories 1955: The O. Henry Awards,
edited by Paul Engle and Hansford Martin, and in
The Best American Short Stories of 1955,
edited by Martha Foley. Seventh story in
A Good Man Is Hard to Find.

THE DISPLACED PERSON.
Sewanee Review,
vol. 62, October 1954. The final story in
A Good Man Is Hard to Find.

A TEMPLE OF THE HOLY GHOST.
Harper's Bazaar,
vol. 88, May 1954. Fifth story in
A Good Man Is Hard to Find.

THE ARTIFICIAL NIGCER.
Kenyon Review,
vol. 17, Spring 1955. Reprinted in
The Best American Short Stories of 1956,
edited by Martha Foley, and in
Fiction in the Fifties,
edited by Herbert Gold, 1959. Sixth story in
A Good Man Is Hard to Find.

GOOD COUNTRY PEOPLE.
Harper's Bazaar,
vol. 89, June 1955. Ninth story in
A Good Man Is Hard to Find.

YOU CAN'T BE ANY POORER THAN DEAD.
New World Writing,
vol. 8, October 1955. Revised and rewritten as the opening chapter of
The Violent Bear It Away.

GREENLEAF.
Kenyon Review,
vol. 18, Summer 1956. Reprinted as the first-prize story in
Prize Stories 1957: The O. Henry Awards,
edited by Paul Engle and Constance Urdang; in
First-Prize Stories, 1919–1957,
edited by Harry Hansen; in
Best American Short Stories of 1957,
edited by Martha Foley; and in
First-Prize Stories, 1919–1963,
edited by Harry Hansen. Second story in
Everything That Rises Must Converge.

A VIEW OF THE WOODS.
Partisan Review,
vol. 24, Fall 1957. Reprinted in
Prize Stories 1959: The O. Henry Awards,
edited by Paul Engle and Constance Urdang, and in
The Best American Short Stories of 1958,
edited by Martha Foley. Third story in
Everything That Rises Must Converge.

THE ENDURING CHILL.
Harper's Bazaar,
vol. 91, July 1958. Fourth story in
Everything That Rises Must Converge.

THE COMFORTS OF HOME.
Kenyon Review,
vol. 22, Fall 1960. Fifth story in
Everything That Rises Must Converge.

EVERYTHING THAT RISES MUST CONVERGE.
New World Writing,
edited by Theodore Solotaroff, vol. 19, 1961. Reprinted in
The Best American Short Stories of 1962,
edited by Martha Foley and David Burnett; as the first-prize story in
Prize Stories 1963: The O. Henry Awards,
edited by Richard Poirier; and in
First-Prize Stories, 1919–1963,
edited by Harry Hansen. Opening story in collection bearing the same title.

THE PARTRIDGE FESTIVAL.
The Critic,
vol. 19, March 1961.

THE LAME SHALL ENTER FIRST.
Sewanee Review,
vol. 70, Summer 1962. Sixth story in
Everything That Rises Must Converge.

WHY DO THE HEATHEN RAGE
? First published in
Esquire,
vol. 60, July 1963. The accompanying editorial note states: “Flannery O'Connor's … third novel is as yet untitled, and she says it may be years before it's finished. This excerpt is from the beginning sections.”

REVELATION.
Sewanee Review,
vol. 72, Spring 1964. First-prize story in
Prize Stories 1965: The O. Henry Awards,
edited by Richard Poirier and William Abraham. Seventh story in
Everything That Rises Must Converge.

PARKER'S BACK.
First published in
Esquire,
vol. 63, April 1965. Eighth story in
Everything That Rises Must Converge.

JUDGEMENT DAY.
See Comments in introduction, p. xvi. The concluding story in
Everything That Rises Must Converge.

BOOKS BY
Flannery O'Connor

NOVELS

Wise Blood

The Violent Bear It Away

STORIES

A Good Man Is Hard to Find

Everything That Rises Must Converge

with an introduction by Robert Fitzgerald

NON-FICTION

Mystery and Manners

edited and with an introduction

by Robert and Sally Fitzgerald

The Habit of Being

edited and with an introduction

by Sally Fitzgerald

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

18 West 18th Street, New York 10011

Copyright © 1946, 1948, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1970, 1971 by the Estate of Mary Flannery O'Connor. Copyright © 1949, 1952, 1955, 1960, 1962 by Flannery O'Connor

Introduction copyright © 1971 by Robert Giroux

All rights reserved

Published in 1971 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Quotations from letters are used by permission of Robert Fitzgerald and of the Estate and are copyright © 1971 by the Estate of Mary Flannery O'Connor. The ten stories from
A Good Man Is Hard to Find,
copyright © 1953, 1954, 1955 by Flannery O'Connor, are used by special arrangement with Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.

Library of Congress catalog card number: 72-171492

Paperback ISBN-13: 978-0-374-51536-2

Paperback ISBN-10: 0-374-51536-0

www.fsgbooks.com

eISBN 9781466829022

First eBook edition: September 2012

*
Letter to Robert Giroux dated July 13, 1971.

 

*
We are indebted to Daniel Curley, former editor of
Accent,
for verifying this date.

 

*
See
Notes.