Lone Star College-Kingwood LibraryLone Star College-Kingwood Library"I live with the people I create and it has always made my essential loneliness less keen."
- Birthplace: Columbus, Georgia
- Died: 29 September 1967
- Listen to McCullers read from The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
Carson McCullers is the author of several critically acclaimed novels including The Member of the Wedding and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Her novella, Ballad of the Sad Cafe, is considered by many to be her masterpiece. Carson's work is often compared with that of Eudora Welty and Flannery O'Connor.
For more about the life and times of the author, watch
Carson McCullers and The Ballad of the Sad Cafe by Peggy Whitley (approx 4 min;
requires QuickTime.
Note: this may take a few minutes to load.)
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, with its nameless narrator, is the story of Amelia Evans, owner of a cafe in the small Southern town close to Cheechaw, Georgia. Amelia Evans, a loner and the richest person for miles around, is in love with Lymon, a hunchback. Her ex-husband, Marvin Macy, returns from prison and starts a relationship with Lymon. McCullers' grotesquely eccentric characters make this a story worth reading and analyzing. It has been made into a movie (available in the library) and was adapted for the stage by Edward Albee. McCullers writing career was short, but her place in American Southern Gothic literature is assured.
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CharactersAmelia Evans - tall, powerful, independent, shrewd, industrious, capable, loner, owner of the Sad Cafe.
Cousin Lymon - a dwarf and hunchback, claims to be a cousin, sociable, enjoys entertaining the townsfolk with tall tales.
Marvin Macy - outlaw, ex-husband of Miss Amelia, returns to town when he is out of prison. And returns from town to prison.
Loneliness | The Power of Love | Compassion in the narration | Character study | Psychological phenomenon that causes human beings who are worshiped to despise the worshiper | Mystical qualities connecting story to the Southern Gothic period | Sad Cafe as folklore. | Use of music to substitute for words and powerful feelings. | The Chain Gang.
Librarian Talk . . . About Books!
Many books are available both online and in the library. So much has been written about this novel, books will be one of your best resources.
Apply in the library or online for a library card. Use your card to:
1) Place a Hold on a book and have it sent to the library closest to you, 2) Access journal and reference databases from home, 3) Access Online Book Database (NetLibrary).
- The catalog is online.
- Online books are available at NetLibrary. Use your library card to log in. Search Steinbeck as a subject, then search inside the books using your keywords.
Dictionary of Literary Biography - This set offers biographical information on authors.
Contemporary Literary Criticism - This multi-volume set contains excerpts and whole articles analyzing and offering critical insight into literature. Use the Title Index to find specific pages on The Ballad of the Sad Cafe . This is a good place to begin focusing on a topic for a paper.
Characters in 20th Century Literature - A brief essay examines the main characters in East of Eden.
Novels for Students Volume 13 - An excellent introduction to the novella, includes biography and critical review.
Gay & Lesbian Literature by Sharon Malinowski - a three page entry for this book is available here.
Gothic Literature: A Gale Critical Companion - brief entries on genre and titles.
Carson McCullers' The ballad of the sad cafe / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom.
Critical essays on Carson McCullers / edited by Beverly Lyon Clark and Melvin J. Friedman.
Twentieth-century Southern Literature:New Perspectives On the South / by J.A. Bryant
Understanding Carson McCullers by Virginia Spencer Carr.
Gothic America : Narrative, History, and Nation - See several chapters, particularly Southern States in Literature for background about genre.
Search NetLibrary. You will find online books about the author and the novella. E-books can be very satisfying, since they are searchable. Find the books, look inside the table of contents and search using your keywords.
To find articles in newspapers and journals, letters, reference books, illustrations, photographs and more, use your library card to login to the following databases. If you find an interesting article that is not full-text, please give the correct bibliographic information to our Reference Librarians and they will see that you get the article. They will need full bibliographic information - and your name and address. Send your phone number as well, so they can contact you if they need to. There is some overlap of articles in the following databases. However, we encourage you to use more than one. All are excellent sources for this topic. [Get a card]
Academic Search Complete - This scholarly, multi-discipline, full-text database contains articles on The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Carson McCullers. Limit your searches to Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals to find the appropriate articles.
Literature Resource Center - Full text articles from reference books and Twayne's Masterworks books. Journal articles, some full text and some excerpted. This database is our link into the MLA index of scholarly literary articles.
MLA - The most authoritative index to scholarly journals in the subject area of literature. This resource contains only a limited number of full-text articles, but is useful to find articles that may be full-text in other databases, in the library on microfiche, or available to you through the library's inter-library loan program. If you need help, please ask the reference librarian on duty. Use "Check LinkSource" to locate full text of articles in other databases.
Proquest Research Library - This multi subject index contains articles on The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Carson McCullers. Limit searches to Scholarly journals including peer reviewed to find appropriate level articles.
Project MUSE - This full text database contains many scholarly journal articles in literature.
JSTOR Arts & Sciences - Search or browse the complete back issues for scholarly journals in literature, economics, history, social sciences, science and mathematics. The most current issue available is determined by publisher agreements and varies.
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Librarian Talk about the Internet!
The internet can be a wonderful source of information, including original documents. In this case, you will find background biographical information, but not much that will be appropriate for a college research paper. Browse the sites suggested below. Remember, you do want to find reputable sites. Evaluate by:
UNACCEPTABLE SOURCE SAMPLE http://www.rit.edu/~nrcgsh/bx/bx04b.html - This appears to be part of a book (the subject is not this novel but it is a good example) however there is nothing we can see that tells you title, author, dates, publisher or any of the other needed information. |
The Carson McCullers Project - This site has a great list of links to McCullers' works and a bibliography of critical writings.
Google Scholar Search Results - the use of Google Scholar will eliminate many of the useless pages for the research paper. Critical articles are available.
Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians - Biographical information. Visit the Center's home page for more southern writers.
The Ballad of Carson McCullers - Biographical information, images,
What is Southern Gothic in Literature and Genre: Southern Gothic - A little background information about the Southern Gothic movement in literature.
If you need help putting your paper together, these links will lead you to tutors and librarians who can offer assistance.
MLA Style Guide | Lone Star College-Kingwood Library guide. Examples of both paper and electronic citations.
Avoiding Plagiarism | Excellent information and guide on how to avoid plagiarism from the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University.
University of Texas Copyright Crash Course | This helpful guide on copyright is suggested by LSC-Kingwood Teaching and Learning Center.
Learning Center | Check hours for tutoring.
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