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A Good Man Is Hard to Find

Flannery O'Connor

First published 1955
Type Short Fiction
Length Short Story

A grandmother sets out on a trip with her son and grandchildren. They are passing through the South where she grew up. She is a vain woman and talks constantly about how much finer life was in her childhood. They encounter a killer on the lam, the grandmother tells him that she recognizes him from the newspapers, and he decides to kill the whole family.

A dark but non-speculative story of violence. First published in 1953 in the anthology The Avon Book of Modern Writing.

Date Publication Publisher Type Page
1955 Cover A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories Harcourt, Brace & Company Collection 9
October 1992 Cover A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories Harcourt Brace Collection 1
September 2000 Cover Dark: Stories of Madness, Murder and the Supernatural Thunder's Mouth Press and Balliett & Fitzgerald Inc. Anthology 249
October 2001 Cover Dark: Stories of Madness, Murder and the Supernatural Mainstream Publishing Anthology 211
2011 Cover The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press Anthology 676
July 2019 Cover American Gothic Short Stories Flame Tree Publishing Anthology
August 2021 The Drabblecast, #450 The Drabblecast MAGAZINE |1