Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor, reprinted by permission of Farrar,
Straus & Giroux, Inc.; copyright © 1949, 1952, 1962 by Flannery
O'Connor, and by permission of The Harold Matson Company; copy-
right 1952 by Flannery O'Connor

Mystery and Manners selected and edited by Sally & Robert Fitzgerald
, reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc.;
copyright © 1957, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1969 by the Estate
of Mary Flannery O'Connor. Copyright © 1962 by Flannery
O'Connor. Copyright © 1961 by Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, Inc., and
by permission of A. D. Peters and Company

Portions of the book appeared in a somewhat different form in my
"Flannery O'Connor and the Grotesque Recovery of the Holy," in
Adversity and Grace: Studies in Recent American Literature, edited
by Nathan A. Scott Jr., copyright 1968 by the University of Chicago
Press.

A number of people have aided, directly or indirectly, in the writing
of this book, and I am happy to have this opportunity to express my
gratitude. First to my father, Preston M. Browning, Sr., who over the
years has given assistance of various kinds and whose generosity it is
impossible to acknowledge adequately. Then to Nathan Scott, who
first suggested that I undertake a study of Flannery O'Connor's
fiction and who guided the work through its earliest development.
Jim Miller offered encouragement, as did, later on, Jim Stronks,
Nancy Cirillo and Edith Hartnett, whose reading of a preliminary
draft made for considerable stylistic improvement. Dorothy McFarland
read the entire manuscript and responded with criticism as probing
as it was judicious. To Giles Gunn and Ben McKulik I owe a long-
standing debt of gratitude. The former's knowledge and love of
American literature continues to serve as both a model and a chal-
lenge, while the latter's unflagging enthusiasm for Flannery O'Connor
and his dedication to the creative teaching of her and other modern
authors have influenced me in more ways than he probably knows.
To the students in my seminar on "Images of Absurdity in Con-
temporary American Fiction" and particularly to Tom O'Brien, whose
unpublished paper on Wise Blood furnished a number of the ideas
for my chapter on that novel, I wish to express my appreciation. I
have, in several instances, retained the language of that essay. Minerva
Bell typed the manuscript with patience and care.

Finally, there is Ann, to whom, at this juncture, thanks seem a
trifle ridiculous but without whom the book would not be and for
whom the book is.

PRESTON M. BROWNING, JR.

University of Illinois at Chicago Circle

January 17, 1974

-v-