The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940) is the debut novel by the American author Carson McCullers; she was 23 at the time of publication. It is about a deaf man named John Singer and the people he encounters in a 1930s mill town in the US state of Georgia. A. S. Knowles Jr., author of "Six Bronze Petals and Two Red: Carson McCullers in the Forties", wrote that the book "still seems to capture [the author's] total sensibility more completely than her other works." Frederic I. Carpenter wrote in the English Journal that the novel "essentially [...] described the struggle of all these lonely people to come to terms with their world, to become members of their society, to find human love—in short, to become mature."

Title

The title comes from the poem "The Lonely Hunter" by the Scottish poet William Sharp, who used the pseudonym "Fiona MacLeod". "Deep in the heart of Summer, sweet is life to me still, But my heart is a lonely hunter that hunts on a lonely hill."

Plot

The book begins with a focus on the relationship between two close friends, John Singer and Spiros Antonapoulos, deaf people who have lived together for several years. Antonapoulos becomes mentally ill, misbehaves, and, despite attempts at intervention from Singer, is eventually put into an insane asylum far away from town. Now alone, Singer moves into a new room. The remainder of the narrative centers on the struggles of four of John Singer's acquaintances: Mick Kelly, a tomboy who loves music and dreams of buying a piano; Jake Blount, an alcoholic labor agitator; Biff Brannon, the observant owner of a diner; and Dr. Benedict Mady Copeland, an idealistic physician. Three times, Singer takes a long trip to visit Spiros in the asylum where he has been placed. On the third trip he learns that Spiros had died; no one had notified Singer.

Creation and conception

McCullers sought to create a novel about a character to whom other characters reveal their innermost secrets. Initially her main character was Jewish.

Characters

The scholar Nancy B. Rich stated that many of the supporting characters are only concerned about their own causes and never achieve a "clear voice" due to their lack of courtesy to one another. Rich also stated that most of the characters do not stand a chance at making meaningful changes towards the governing system.

Background

McCullers had started a politically oriented magazine and voiced a possibility of becoming active in politics.

Reception

When published in 1940, the novel created a literary sensation and enjoyed a rapid rise to the top of the bestseller lists; it was the first in a string of works by McCullers that give voice to those who are rejected, forgotten, mistreated or oppressed. Evans wrote that the initial reaction was "a divided reception from the critics, some of whom were inclined to view it, not so much as a novel in its own right, but as a kind of literary phenomenon—as the precocious product" of a young author who may turn out higher quality product when she is older. Alice Hamilton wrote in the Dalhousie Review that the presence of so many mutes in the storyline "Taken literally [...] strains the bounds of credulity." Frederic I. Carpenter wrote in The English Journal that the ending exhibits "frustration" as Biff Brannon makes comments and as Adolf Hitler makes proclamations over the radio. The Modern Library ranked the novel seventeenth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Time included it in "TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005". In 2004 the novel was selected for Oprah's Book Club.

Adaptations

A film adaptation was made in 1968, starring Alan Arkin, Sondra Locke and Cicely Tyson. A stage adaptation of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter premiered on March 30, 2005, at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. The show ran until April 24 of that year, then toured. The play was an Alliance Theater presentation done in association with The Acting Company out of New York. The play, adapted by Rebecca Gilman, was directed by Doug Hughes. British artist Joe Simpson made McCullers's book the centerpiece of his 2014 painting, The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter. The painting shows two characters each reading the book on the London Underground; it is one of his ongoing series of paintings entitled, "London". A radio dramatization was broadcast in two parts by BBC Radio 4 on 15 and 22 March 2020.