Carson McCullers Center For Writers and Musicians

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Failing Health and Final Work

The final fifteen years of McCullers' life saw a marked decline in the writer's health and in her creative abilities. Bedridden by paralysis from a series of debilitating strokes, McCullers was devastated by the failed production of her second play The Square Root of Wonderful, which closed after only forty-five performances on Broadway in 1957, and the mixed reception of her final novel Clock Without Hands (1961). Her final book-length publication was a book of children's verse Sweet as Pickle and Clean as a Pig (1964). At the time of her death she was at work on an autobiography, "Illumination and Night Glare." A more encouraging event in her final years was the success of Edward Albee's 1963 adaptation of The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, which enjoyed a Broadway run of 123 performances.

McCullers' life was blighted by a series of cerebral strokes caused by her childhood case of rheumatic fever. The first stroke in February 1941 temporarily impaired her vision and caused debilitating head pains. The second and third occurred in Paris in the fall of 1946. These strokes temporarily destroyed the lateral vision in her right eye and permanently paralyzed her left side. Depressed by her declining health and her marital difficulties, Carson attempted suicide in March 1948 and was briefly hospitalized in a psychiatric clinic. On August 15, 1967, McCullers suffered her final cerebral stroke. Comatose for forty-seven days, she died in the Nyack Hospital. McCullers was buried in Nyack's Oak Hill Cemetery on the banks of the Hudson River. A memorial service was held at St. James's Episcopal church in New York City on October 3, 1967.

Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians, 1519 Stark Avenue, Columbus, Georgia, 31906

(706) 568-2054

Created By Patricia Gilbert