Author
Shirley Ann Grau
Birth Date
July 8, 1929
(91 Years)
Death Date
August 3, 2020
Associated Country
United States
Shirley Ann Grau (1929–2020) was an American writer known for her richly textured portrayals of life in the Deep South, particularly Louisiana and Alabama. Born in New Orleans, she spent part of her childhood in rural Alabama, experiences that would deeply shape her fiction. She studied at Tulane University and began publishing short stories before gaining national recognition for her novels, which often explore family legacies, social change, and the lingering effects of history in the South.
Grau achieved major acclaim with her 1964 novel The Keepers of the House, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Her work is notable for its psychological depth and its unflinching treatment of complex issues such as race relations, class divisions, and moral responsibility. Other important books include The Hard Blue Sky, The House on Coliseum Street, and The Condor Passes, all of which reflect her keen attention to character and place.
Over the course of her career, Grau established herself as a significant voice in 20th-century American literature. Though she was not as publicly prominent as some of her contemporaries, her writing earned critical respect for its elegance and insight. She continued to write into later life and remained closely associated with Southern literary traditions until her death in 2020.
Grau achieved major acclaim with her 1964 novel The Keepers of the House, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Her work is notable for its psychological depth and its unflinching treatment of complex issues such as race relations, class divisions, and moral responsibility. Other important books include The Hard Blue Sky, The House on Coliseum Street, and The Condor Passes, all of which reflect her keen attention to character and place.
Over the course of her career, Grau established herself as a significant voice in 20th-century American literature. Though she was not as publicly prominent as some of her contemporaries, her writing earned critical respect for its elegance and insight. She continued to write into later life and remained closely associated with Southern literary traditions until her death in 2020.
Books
A family hides its poverty behind a façade of gentility. A mysterious stranger sows discord in a backwoods hamlet. A man leaves prison only to be drawn back into the darkness of his past. A young...
The Hard Blue Sky 2012
West of New Orleans among a few small Gulf islands lies the Isle aux Chiens, a tiny, impoverished strip of land burdened by intolerable heat and roaming packs of wild dogs. Here a handful of Creole...
The Condor Passes 2012
Like many people in turn-of-the-twentieth-century New Orleans, Thomas Henry Oliver came to the city to escape a dull life—in his case, a childhood in the backwoods of the Midwest. But few New Orleans...
Joan Mitchell has two suitors, and can't decide whom to marry. A witness to her mother Aurelie's less than successful romantic history, she'd like to skip marriage altogether. Joan and Aurelie live...
Nine Women 2012
The nine namesake women of this collection come from widely disparate worlds, from isolated bayou towns to New Orleans high society. All, however, struggle with grief, longing, and hope.
In "Widows...
Roadwalkers 2012
Mary is an orphaned, homeless, African American child, abandoned by the rest of her family and left to care for her younger brother. She becomes a "roadwalker," a nomad who wanders across the rural...
Entrenched on the same land since the early 1800s, the Howlands have, for seven generations, been pillars of their Southern community. Extraordinary family lore has been passed down to Abigail...