{"id":2552,"date":"2012-03-31T14:45:13","date_gmt":"2012-03-31T18:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/?p=2552"},"modified":"2012-03-31T14:45:13","modified_gmt":"2012-03-31T18:45:13","slug":"flannery-oconnor-on-living-with-a-peacock-the-king-of-the-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2012\/03\/31\/flannery-oconnor-on-living-with-a-peacock-the-king-of-the-birds\/","title":{"rendered":"Flannery O&#8217;Connor on living with a peacock &#8212; the king of the birds"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"e26b170012445c56d240655bdd03f7bf\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: left; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-5595881567027133\";\r\n\/* Medium Rectangle *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"8584504377\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 300;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 250;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>A few years ago on Ebay, I bought the 1961 edition of <em>Holiday<\/em> magazine with Flannery O&#8217;Connor&#8217;s essay &#8220;Living with a Peacock&#8221; to donate to the library collection of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flanneryoconnorhome.org\" target=\"_blank\">Flannery O&#8217;Connor Childhood Home<\/a> here in Savannah. <\/p>\n<p>Today I noticed that a blog devoted entirely to <em>Holiday<\/em> has published the entire essay online. Here&#8217;s the incredibly witty, somehow telling opening: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>When I was five, I had an experience that marked me for life. Path\u00c3\u00a9 News sent a photographer from New York to Savannah to take a picture of a chicken of mine. This chicken, a buff Cochin Bantam, had the distinction of being able to walk either forward or backward. Her fame has spread through the press and by the time she reached the at\u00c2\u00adtention of Path\u00c3\u00a9 News, I suppose there was nowhere left for her to go\u00e2\u20ac\u201dforward or backward. Shortly after that she died, as now seems fitting.<\/p>\n<p>If I put this information in the beginning of an article on peacocks, it is because I am always being asked why I raise them, and I have no short or reasonable answer.<\/p>\n<p>From that day with the Path\u00c3\u00a9 man I began to collect chickens. What had been only a mild interest became a passion, a quest. I had to have more and more chickens. I favored those with one green eye and one orange or with over-long necks and crooked combs. I wanted one with three legs or three wings but nothing in that line turned up. I pon\u00c2\u00addered over the picture in Robert Ripley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book, Believe It Or Not, of a rooster that had survived for thirty days without his head; but I did not have a scientific temperament . I could sew in a fashion and I began to make clothes for chickens. A gray bantam named Colonel Eggbert wore a white piqu\u00c3\u00a9 coat with a lace collar and two buttons in the back. Apparently Path\u00c3\u00a9 News never heard of any of these other chickens of mine; it never sent another photographer.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/holidaymag.wordpress.com\/2012\/03\/30\/living-with-a-peacock-by-flannery-oconnor-september-1961\/\" target=\"_blank\">Click here<\/a> to read the entire essay. <\/p>\n<p>And here&#8217;s that footage of the young O&#8217;Connor shot by Pathe:<br \/>\n<center><\/p>\n<h2>DO YOU REVERSE?<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishpathe.com\/video\/do-you-reverse-1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.britishpathe.com\/?id=51137&#038;num=10&#038;size=thumb\" title=\"DO YOU REVERSE?\" width=\"352\" height=\"264\" \/><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<div class=\"e26b170012445c56d240655bdd03f7bf\" data-index=\"4\" style=\"float: none; margin:4px 0 4px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-5595881567027133\";\r\n\/* Another large rectangle *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"0042810896\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 336;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 280;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few years ago on Ebay, I bought the 1961 edition of Holiday magazine with Flannery O&#8217;Connor&#8217;s essay &#8220;Living with a Peacock&#8221; to donate to the library collection of the Flannery O&#8217;Connor Childhood Home here in Savannah. Today I noticed&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2012\/03\/31\/flannery-oconnor-on-living-with-a-peacock-the-king-of-the-birds\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[5],"tags":[19],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Screen-shot-2012-03-31-at-2.47.28-PM.png?fit=379%2C335","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1gN9R-Fa","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}