Georgia’s literary landscape Visiting the homes of classic Southern writers BY JACKIE KENNEDY Whether it’s the rural farmhouse of Flannery O’Connor or Margaret Mitchell’s Peachtree Street apartment, the homes of Georgia’s great authors have inspired the writers who lived there. In “The Habit of Being,” O’Connor wrote: “When in Rome, do as you done in Milledgeville.” Her hometown provided a sense of place and being that worked its way into her writings, as home has for other acclaimed authors. Georgia’s literary landscape features writers’ homes that are open to the public, inviting readers to experience the same Southern sights and sounds the writers relished. Eight of the state’s literary landmarks are included on the new Southern Literary Trail, which spotlights 17 towns in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, celebrating world-renowned 20th-century writers and playwrights inspired by their communities. Literary stops in Georgia include: Carson McCullers
Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians, Columbus
 | | The Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians was the childhood home of the novelist who lived here when her first book, “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter,” was published. |
At 1519 Stark Ave. in Columbus, the Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians is the childhood home of the writer who lived there from 1925 to 1944. As an imaginative youngster, McCullers put on plays for her family; sliding doors between the sitting rooms served as the curtain separating her make-believe stage from her audience. McCullers wrote short stories, plays and novels, including “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” and “The Member of the Wedding,” with race, gender and class as themes, according to Center Director Cathy Fussell. Operated by Columbus State University, the center offers educational programs for the community and fellowships to writers and composers who reside at the home for brief periods. To schedule a tour, call (706) 327-1911 or visit www.mccullerscenter.org. • • • Flannery O’Connor
Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home, Savannah
Andalusia, Milledgeville  | | Flannery O’Connor’s most productive years of writing were when she lived at Andalusia, the family farm where she resided with her mother. (Photo courtesy of the Flannery O’Connor Collection, GCSU Library.) |
Born March 25, 1925, in Savannah, Flannery O’Connor grew up at 207 East Charlton St. where she drew pictures of the chickens she tended in her family’s back yard. The Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home Foundation now operates the home, which features O’Connor’s baby carriage, cradle and bedroom furniture. O’Connor lived in Savannah until age 13 when her family moved to downtown Milledgeville. After graduating from Georgia State College for Women (now Georgia College & State University), she lived in Iowa, New York and Connecticut before returning to Milledgeville in 1951 to live on the 544-acre family farm known as Andalusia. Here she rekindled her affinity for birds, caring for numerous peacocks until her death in 1964. “Andalusia is one of the most important literary landmarks in the country because it’s more than just a place where Flannery O’Connor penned her internationally acclaimed fiction,” says Craig Amasson, executive director of the Flannery O’Connor-Andalusia Foundation. “It is a place that very clearly inspired many of her stories.” O’Connor classics include “Wise Blood” and “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” Andalusia is located at 2628 Highway 441 N., Milledgeville. For more, call (478) 454-4029 or visit www.andalusiafarm.org. For more on the childhood home, call (912) 233-6014 or visit www.flanneryoconnorhome.org. • • • Joel Chandler Harris
Wren’s Nest, Atlanta  | | The Wren’s Nest, home of Joel Chandler Harris, is the oldest house museum in Atlanta. (Photo courtesy of The Wren’s Nest.) |
Named for a wren nest in the mailbox, the Wren’s Nest was the home of Joel Chandler Harris from 1881 to 1908 and is Atlanta’s oldest house museum. Located at 1050 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd. S.W., the Queen Anne Victorian home opened in 1913 and features most of the Harris family’s original belongings. Harris, who supported racial reconciliation, gained worldwide popularity with his Brer Rabbit stories, written in dialect in the storytelling traditions of black Americans. “Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings” has never been out of print and has had more than 30 translations. “Joel Chandler Harris totally revolutionized children’s literature,” says Lain Shakespeare, Wren’s Nest executive director. “He was the J.K. Rowling of his day.” For more, call (404) 753-7735 or visit www.wrensnestonline.com. • • • Margaret Mitchell
Margaret Mitchell House & Museum, Atlanta  | | Margaret Mitchell lived in an apartment at this Peachtree Street abode while writing her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Gone With the Wind.” (Photo courtesy of the Margaret Mitchell House and Museum.) |
The Margaret Mitchell House at 990 Peachtree St. in Atlanta is where the author penned her Pulitzer Prize-winning “Gone With the Wind,” the best-selling novel of all time. Built in 1899, the single-family home was converted into 10 apartment units in 1919. Mitchell lived in Apartment No. 1, where she wrote her novel from 1925 to 1932. “The Margaret Mitchell House and Museum connects Atlanta with its past—its 20th-century past in terms of Mitchell living here and her interest in civil rights, and with the 19th-century past of the Civil War through her book,” says Sarah Dollacker, the museum’s communications manager. Mitchell died in 1949, five days after being struck by a cab while crossing Peachtree Street near her former home; now it serves as a center for literary arts. For more, call (404) 249-7015 or visit www.gwtw.org. • • • Erskine Caldwell
Erskine Caldwell Birthplace Museum, Moreland  | | Erskine Caldwell’s birthplace home was moved several miles to the center of Moreland where it welcomes visitors to learn of his Georgia upbringing. (Photo of Erskine Caldwell courtesy of the Erskie Caldwell Birthplace and Museum; photo of home by Jackie Kennedy.) |
Erskine Caldwell was born in 1903 in Coweta County. His birthplace now serves as a house museum on E. Camp Street in Moreland on the town square. Author of “God’s Little Acre” and “Tobacco Road,” Caldwell was interested in helping the socially and racially oppressed. Many of his works focus on his travels, most notably “In Search of Bisco,” about his 1960s search for a black playmate from his youth. “In recent years, interest in the museum has grown along with a revival of interest in Caldwell’s work,” says Winston Skinner, Museum Committee chairman. “Earlier this year, he received [posthumously] one of the first Richard Brooks Visionary Awards of Distinction from the Coweta County Centre for Performing and Visual Arts.” For more, call (770) 254-8657. • • • Georgia sites on the Southern Literary Trail also include the Eatonton home of Alice Walker and Lillian Smith’s home in Clayton. For more, visit www.southernliterarytrail.org. —Jackie Kennedy is a freelance writer living in LaGrange.
Monthlong celebration in 2009 Georgia authors will be featured on the Southern Literary Trail, a historic linking of Southern communities, towns and landmarks, for a monthlong festival honoring some of the South’s greatest authors, scheduled for March 2009. With stops along 18 Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi towns between Savannah and Natchez, Miss., events will take place at various libraries, museums and courthouses throughout the month. Trail towns will present tours, plays, films, readings and discussion panels celebrating Southern literature and its hometown authors, with special emphasis on the settings that influenced their works. For information on event times and locations, visit www.southernliterarytrail.org. | 
