Flannery O'Connor the renowned short-story writer lived and fought a tumultuous battle with
lupus erythematosus most of her adult life. In her last five years she sought insightful and
helpful sources to alleviate her struggle with the disease. Among these sources were the ideas
and thoughts of a Jesuit-paleontologist-mystic by the name of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin an
individual who opened doors of witness to the secular world and attracted suspicious
questioning from his Catholic superiors. Like a moth drawn to a flame Flannery O'Connor a
devoted Thomist increasingly admired the ideas of Teilhard de Chardin to the point that she
incorporated his ideas into her last six short stories in the collection Everything That Rises
Must Converge. This book adds significantly to the neglected study of Teilhard de Chardin's
influence in the later literary development of Flannery O'Connor. This book would be a valuable
asset to students and scholars focusing on American literature Southern literature
twentieth-century Southern female writers and Flannery O'Connor.
