McCullers, Carson

McCullers, Carson née Smith (Lula) ( 1917 – 67 ),
American novelist and short story writer, born in Georgia, where most of her works are set. These include The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter ( 1940 ), Reflections in a Golden Eye ( 1941 ), The Member of the Wedding ( 1946 ; dramatized by the author, 1950 ), and a collection, The Ballad of the Sad Café ( 1951 ), of which the title story was dramatized by Albee , 1963 . Critics have detected Gothic elements in her work, which is frequently tinged with the macabre; she herself wrote that her central theme was ‘spiritual isolation’.