Museum Exhibit: Carson McCullers

About a month ago, I visited Carson McCullers' childhood home in Columbus, Georgia. In my post, I mentioned that I'd learned that Fayetteville, NC, had used McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter for its National Endowment for the Arts The Big Read selection for 2010. The Museum of the Cape Fear has a McCullers exhibit that I got to see just before it ends on May 30.
The exhibit, though small, paired nicely with what I learned in Columbus. It focused on McCullers' time in Fayetteville where she wrote much of her debut novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, from this second story front porch at 119 North Cool Spring Street in downtown Fayetteville. The home is one of the oldest in town.

As you can see, the house is still beautiful. Today it in home to an appraisal company but thankfully, it looks much as it did in the photo of it at the museum taken while McCullers lived there in 1938 and 1939. McCullers and her husband, Reeves McCullers, also lived at 109 Rowan Street in Fayetteville, which today is a US mail facility.

The museum reported that McCullers described the book that she finished in Fayetteville as, "a story of five isolated, lonely people in their search for expression and spiritual integration with something greater than themselves." The book was published in 1940 and became very popular.
Additionally, the museum highlighted some of McCullers' friendships with other famous people such as Tennessee Williams, Richard Wright, Marilyn Monroe, John Huston and others. She once occupied a house in Brooklyn Heights, New York, with other writers, and it is described in a book I've just added to my Goodreads list called February House: The Story of W.H. Auden, Carson McCullers, Jane and Paul Bowles, and Gypsy Rose Lee, Under One Roof in Brooklyn by Sherill Tippins.

House Museum: Carson McCullers

This week, my mom and I traveled to Columbus, Georgia, and Monroeville and Montgomery, Alabama, to see three Southern Literary Trail sites. I mentioned here recently that I read Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, and her childhood home in Columbus was our first stop.

We had arranged for a tour ahead of time, and we were met at on the front porch by the director of The Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians, Cathy Fussell. The home is a beautiful example of a Craftsman-style house, and was occupied by McCullers' family, the Smiths, from 1925 until 1944. Today the home is owned and managed by Columbus State University, but remains accessible to the community as events, readings, meetings, and other gatherings are regularly held here. The University has an active creative writing program, and its students have the benefit of having The Carson McCullers Center available to them.

McCullers described this home and her hometown in numerous places in her stories, and according to Fussell, McCullers felt crowded in Columbus, but comfortable in her family's home. McCullers' bedroom was on the front of the house and in it she wrote The Member of the Wedding sitting at a desk next to this dresser.

Fussell told us an interesting tidbit that tied in well with the rest of our trip. McCuller's sister, Rita Smith, was an editor in New York and the first person to publish Truman Capote.

McCullers wrote The Heart is a Lonely Hunter in Fayetteville, NC, while she lived there with her Army husband. Currently, Fayetteville's The Museum of the Cape Fear has a McCullers exhibit on display through May 30. So, for those of you reading from North Carolina, be sure to check this out sometime this month. I, myself, am going to see if I can swing a visit.

Fussell was a wonderful, knowledgeable tour guide. You can read more about The Carson McCullers Center on her blog.

After we left the McCullers home, we headed for downtown Columbus to get lunch and see Broadway, the main drag that McCullers described in her work.

We realized on the way that Columbus should get an award for repurposing old buildings. This house is now a Burger King (note the playground to the left), and this barbeque restaurant where we ate lunch was once a bus station.

Carson McCullers and Dixie Carter

I recently read Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, and got completely sucked into the book, falling in love with all the quirky characters. This novel is a great example of a Southern Gothic novel, which is a genre that I love. I think what attracts me most to this kind of story is that all the characters are kooky and eccentric. I think every Southerner can conjure up a memory of at least one person from in their past who is like a character in most every Southern Gothic novel. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was certainly that way for me, though I won't reveal any more than that.

Earlier this week Dixie Carter, one of the Southern women who starred in the sitcom "Designing Women," passed away at age 70. I know I use this blog to talk about books and occasional movies, but in this case, I just can't help but see a parallel between characters in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and "Designing Women's" Julia Sugarbaker. If you don't believe me, just watch this clip from an episode. Well said, Julia.

Stella!!!

The 24th annual Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival ended last week. This is an event I'd love to attend one day (or for that matter, just visit New Orleans at any time), but for now I'll have to settle for watching online videos of the Stella Shouting Contest, which is pretty great. Here's the link.

I've finally finished reading a book I mentioned over a month ago, Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn: A Saga of Race and Family by Gary Pomerantz. It was pretty interesting with lots of good information, but DENSE. It took me a lot longer to read than most other books, but it was worth it. I learned a lot about Atlanta, which is great, since I really didn't know enough before. I'm happy I read it, but also happy to move on to something else. Tomorrow I'll be starting Carson McCullers' The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, which I'm very excited about because I hope to visit her childhood home in Columbus, Georgia, later this month. I'll keep you posted.