Carson McCullers : A Life

Carson McCullers shot to international fame at the age of 23 with the publication of her first novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Despite a mysterious, debilitating disease she wrote such classics as The Member of the Wedding, Reflections in a Golden Eye and The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, adapted for Broadway and the cinema. She was a controversial figure, whose immense emotional needs often overshadowed her great charm and deep intelligence while her friends included celebrities such as Katherine Anne Porter, Truman Capote, John Huston, Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, WH Auden and Tennesse Williams. Above all she was a life force, a person who had a relentless need to write and did so despite great physical pain, up until her untimely death at the age of fifty. Savigneau's compassionate portrait - the first biography to be written with the full cooperation of the McCullers estate - is a unique and engaging look at one of the most enigmatic literary figures of last century.