Hidden Dyslexics: Lamar Smith, Carson McCuller's Brother

Dr. Virginia Spencer Carr is a professor of English at Georgia State University and has also written several books on Carson McCullers—most notably, of course, her award winning biography, The Lonely Hunter, in 1975.

Carr: I asked Carson's brother, Lamar Smith, who is dead now. The whole family is dead. I can say some of these things.

I asked Lamar, "Why was it that his sister, Carson, never really depicted characters with strong mothers?" He said, "Oh, she couldn't have stood revealing so much of herself—it would have been such a breach of decorum. She was so dependent on her mother that she could never create that strong character who was a mother; therefore, she just had to have her characters motherless or have them die in childbirth, you see."

Lamar is really quite an interesting character. He was dyslexic, and people thought he was stupid because he couldn't read well. He dropped out of Georgia Tech, an engineering major because he thought he couldn't succeed.

But he became very successful in his die and machinist work when he settled with his wife in Perry, Florida. "And," he said, "you know, I realize now that I probably could have done almost anything I wanted to do if I just recognized early enough what the problem was."

an exerpt from Exotic Birds of a Feather: Carson McCullers and Tennessee Williams © Copyright 2000 by The Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival

Carson McCuller’s first novel, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, published in 1940, was immediately successful and made her then a kind of wunderkind at the age of 23. Carr is Dr. Virginia Spencer Carr, a professor of English at Georgia State University and the author of the r award winning biography, The Lonely Hunter, in 1975.

Comments

[Dick Jones]

At my school, St Christopher (check my sidebar links), we have a substantial number of dyslexics. Many of my most successful Drama & Theatre Studies students have been dyslexic, some of them severely. We acknowledge the condition's palpable existence, apply no stigma of any sort to it, & we have extensive skilled coaching for those who wish to avail themselves of it.

[Ange DiBenedetto]

Good Morning,

I am in need of finding a boarding school for my nephew who just failed 9th grade, his family has very little money, if he stays at home, his life will be ruined.
Please help.
ange

[Ange DiBenedetto]

Good Morning,

I am in need of finding a boarding school for my nephew who just failed 9th grade, his family has very little money, if he stays at home, his life will be ruined.
Please help.
ange