卡森·麥卡勒斯，20世紀美國最重要的作傢之一，1917年2月19日生於美國佐治亞州的Columbus。29歲後癱瘓。著有《心是孤獨的獵手》、《婚禮的成員》、《黃金眼睛的映像》、《沒有指針的鍾》等小說作品。1967年9月29日麥卡勒斯在紐約州的Nyack去世，時年50歲。

在綫閱讀本書

With the publication of her first novel, THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER, Carson McCullers, all of twenty-three, became a literary sensation. With its profound sense of moral isolation and its compassionate glimpses into its characters' inner lives, the novel is considered McCullers' finest work, an enduring masterpiece first published by Houghton Mifflin in 1940. At its center is the deaf-mute John Singer, who becomes the confidant for all various types of misfits in a Georgia mill town during the 1930s. Each one yearns for escape from small town life. When Singer's mute companion goes insane, Singer moves into the Kelly house, where Mick Kelly, the book's heroine (and loosely based on McCullers), finds solace in her music. Wonderfully attune to the spiritual isolation that underlies the human condition, and with a deft sense for racial tensions in the South, McCullers spins a haunting, unforgettable story that gives voice to the rejected, the forgotten, and the mistreated -- and, through Mick Kelly, gives voice to the quiet, intensely personal search for beauty.

Richard Wright praised Carson McCullers for her ability "to rise above the pressures of her environment and embrace white and black humanity in one sweep of apprehension and tenderness." She writes "with a sweep and certainty that are overwhelming," said the NEW YORK TIMES. McCullers became an overnight literary sensation, but her novel has endured, just as timely and powerful today as when it was first published. THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER is Carson McCullers at her most compassionate, endearing best. When she was only twenty-three, CarsonMcCullers's first novel created a literary sensation. Shewas very special, one of America's superlativewriters who conjures up a vision of existence asterrible as it is real, who takes us on shatteringvoyages into the depths of the spiritual isolationthat underlies the human condition. This novel isthe work of a supreme artist, Carson McCullers'senduring masterpiece. The heroine is the strangeyoung girl, Mick Kelly. The setting is a smallSouthern town, the cosmos universal and eternal.The characters are the damned, the voiceless, therejected. Some fight their loneliness withviolence and depravity, Some with sex or drink, and some-- like Mick -- with a quiet, intensely personalsearch for beauty.