William Paterson professor writes “notable” biography

Wayne — A new biography of Flannery O’Connor, written by William Paterson University English professor Brad Gooch, has been included among the Top 100 Notable Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review. The book was also included in other year-end lists, including The New Yorker’s “Reviewers Favorites from 2009;” the Boston Globe’s “Simply the Best Nonfiction;” the Chicago Tribune’s “Our Favorite Nonfiction of 2009;” and Atlantic Magazine’s “Best 25 Books of 2009.” Additionally, he was featured on a segment on Flannery O’Connor on PBS’s “Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly,” broadcast in November. Flannery, A Life of Flannery O’Connor, is the first major biography written about the Southern writer who died at 39 in 1964, and has garnered praise since its publication earlier this year. The book has received national attention with two reviews in the New York Times, one featured on the cover of the Book Review, and others in the Washington Post, the New York Review of Books, The Washington Times, USA Today, Time magazine, and in The Star-Ledger and the Record. O’Connor, the author of two novels, and 32 short stories, has been the object of attention for Gooch since he was a graduate student in 1980, when he first approached the O’Connor estate about writing a biography. Informed that another biographer was working on a book, he moved on to other projects. By 2003, the other biography had never appeared and he reengaged the idea. In 2004, Gooch was awarded a prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship Award for his work on the O’Connor biography, becoming the first William Paterson professor to be awarded the fellowship. His research revealed O’Connor to be both complex and talented, with an undeserved reputation as a recluse. Gooch is the author of several works, including a volume of poetry, a biography of the poet Frank O’Hara, three novels, and two self-help books.