With LitCity Lore, we periodically feature a story from our new LitCity website, which maps unique Iowa City literary stories to the locations where writers lived, worked, gave readings, socialized and were inspired by the town.

This week we are highlighting Flannery O’Connor’s famous master thesis, “The Geranium: a Collection of Short Stories,” which is held in Special Collections at the University of Iowa Main Library.

The thesis contains several of Flannery’s now famous stories, including the eponymous “The Geranium,” which was the first story ever published by her.

Flannery would go on to rewrite and republish "Geranium" four times, finally including it as part of her most famous collection Everything that Rises Must Converge. She submitted this thesis to the Graduate College in June, 1947.

Explore this story and more at the LitCity website.