Florence King

Miss Florence Virginia King (b. January 5, 1936, Washington, D.C.) is an American novelist, essayist and columnist. Image File history File links Florence_king. ... Image File history File links Florence_king. ... January 5 is the 5th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Nickname: DC, The District Motto: Justitia Omnibus (Justice for All) Location of Washington, D.C., in relation to the states Maryland and Virginia Coordinates: Federal District District of Columbia  - Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D)  - City Council Chairperson: Vincent C. Gray (D) Ward 1: Jim Graham (D) Ward 2: Jack Evans...

While her early writings focused on the American South and those who live there, much of King's later work has been published in the National Review. Her column in National Review, "The Misanthrope's Corner", was known for "serving up a smorgasbord of curmudgeonly critiques about rubes and all else bothersome to the Queen of Mean", as the magazine put it. Historic Southern United States. ... National Review (NR) is a biweekly magazine of political opinion, founded by author William F. Buckley Jr. ...

She is a traditional conservative, but not a "movement conservative" and objects to much of the populist direction of the contemporary American Right ^[source?]. Miss King labels herself, with considerable justification, a "misanthrope". Conservatism is a political philosophy that usually favors traditional values and strong foreign defense. ... Populism is a political ideology or rhetorical style that holds that the common person is oppressed by the elite in society, which exists only to serve its own interests, and therefore, the instruments of the State need to be grasped from this self-serving elite and instead used for the... Misanthropy is a general dislike of the human race. ...

Career

Born to an American mother and British father, Herbert Frederick and Louise Ruding King, Florence King was raised in Tidewater, Virginia, by her maternal grandmother. She is an active Episcopalian, member of Phi Alpha Theta, and her political preference is Royalist. The Tidewater region of Virginia is a term used to refer to the southeastern portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia. ... Phi Alpha Theta is an American honor society for undergraduate students, graduate students, and professors of history. ...

In 1957, King received her B.A. in history from American University in Washington D.C., where she was inducted into Phi Alpha Theta. She also attended the University of Mississippi as a graduate student, but did not complete her M.A. degree after the traumatic loss of her girlfriend in a car crash ^[source?]. Year 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other universities known as American University, see American University (disambiguation). ... Phi Alpha Theta is an American honor society for undergraduate students, graduate students, and professors of history. ... The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. ...

King had several occupations before she began writing as a career. In the mid-1950s, she was a history teacher in Suitland, Maryland. Later in the decade, she was a file clerk at the National Association of Realtors. From 1964 to 1967, King was a feature writer for the Raleigh News and Observer. While at the newspaper, Miss King received the North Carolina Press Woman Award for reporting ([1]). Suitland-Silver Hill is a census-designated place located in Prince Georges County, Maryland. ... The News & Observer logo The front page of The News & Observer from January 26, 2005 The News & Observer is the regional daily newspaper of the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. ...

The majority of King’s works under her own name have been non-fiction essays. She also wrote a historical romance novel Barbarian Princess under the pseudonym of Laura Buchanan. King has also admitted to having written numerous pornographic stories and pulp paperback books and erotica under various pseudonyms. She gained national attention with her column "The Misanthrope's Corner" in National Review, a conservative magazine of political and social commentary. In addition, she wrote numerous articles for the The American Enterprise magazine. At the time of her retirement in 2002, the National Review of Books published an anthology of her columns entitled STET, Damnit! Cover to 1959 lesbian pulp fiction novel The Third Sex, by Artemis Smith. ... A pseudonym or allonym is a name (sometimes legally adopted, sometimes purely fictitious) used by an individual as an alternative to their birth name. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ...

King's first book (published under her own name) was 1975's Southern Ladies and Gentlemen. The work provides a humorous guide to the South for "Yankees"; while still funny, it has become somewhat dated over the years. Her most popular book, Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady (1985), is a semi-autobiographical work, focusing on her grandmother. Image File history File links Southernladiesandgentlemen1. ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In the work, King says she had relationships with both men and women during college: one woman she fell in love with was killed in a car crash ([2]). She jokingly describes herself as a "conservative lesbian feminist" and has been referred to as the "World's Funniest Bi-Sexual-Republican." (see[3]) A lesbian is a female emotionally and/or sexually attracted only to other females. ... Feminism is a social theory and political movement primarily informed and motivated by the experience of women. ... In human sexuality, bisexuality describes a man or woman having a sexual orientation to persons of either or both sexes (a man or woman who sexually likes both sexes; people who are sexually and/or romantically attracted to both males and females). ...

King has publicly acknowledged regret at revealing her bisexuality, as she does not want to be part of the "gay liberation movement." This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

In 1995, King publicly accused the late writer Molly Ivins of plagiarizing her ([4]). Ivins publicly acknowledged and apologized for her error ([5]). Molly Ivins (born August 30, 1944, as Mary Tyler Ivins) is a newspaper columnist, political commentator, and best-selling author from Austin, Texas. ... Plagiarism is the practice of claiming, or implying, original authorship, or incorporating material from someone elses written or creative work in whole or in part, into ones own, without adequate acknowledgment. ...

King, who now lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia, has kept to herself since entering retirement in 2002. It is not known if she will write any new books. However, a selection of her book reviews and articles was released under the title Deja Reviews: Florence King All Over Again in October 2006. Location in Virginia Coordinates: Country United States State Virginia County Spotsylvania County* Founded 1728 Incorporated 1781 Mayor Thomas Tomzak Area    - City 27. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ...

Anecdotes

• King on stress: "The American way of stress is comparable to Freud's 'beloved symptom', his name for the cherished neurosis that a patient cultivates like the rarest of orchids and does not want to be cured of. Stress makes Americans feel busy, important, and in demand, and simultaneously deprived, ignored, and victimized. Stress makes them feel interesting and complex instead of boring and simple, and carries an assumption of sensitivity not unlike the Old World assumption that aristocrats were high-strung. In short, stress has become a status symbol." (from "The Misanthrope's Corner", May 2001)

• King on the American attention span: "The American attention span always has gotten a lot of attention. The first to note our easy distractibility was Alexis de Tocqueville. His findings were echoed by Frederick Jackson Turner, but being an American, Turner used the more tactful and romantic 'restlessness.'

"...Our distractibility is also the inevitable residue of our undisciplined feelings. The American proclivity for leaving our emotional lights on has drained the battery of our attention span dry. The human spirit can take only so much of 24-hour coverage, memorial services, ribbons, teddy bears, crisis counseling, and moments of silence. We pay such obsessive attention to disasters and tragedies that we end up seeking respite in forgetfulness. (Quick, name one Teheran hostage.)

"Welcome to America, the Flea Circus. We now have a new disease, Attention Deficit Disorder, and like all democratic diseases, it does not discriminate. The good news is that by the time we run the gauntlet of ADD resources, clinics, programs, workshops, seminars, CBS Specials, and Sally Struthers promos, no one will remember what it is." (from "The Misanthrope's Corner", June 1995)

• King summed up her writing efforts in a May 2002 "Misanthrope's Corner": "Being a writer has made me a lifelong practitioner of no-holds-barred insight, driven by an irresistible impulse to shovel through mountains of received bull to get to the bottom of things."

• As an example of the manners taught to her by her grandmother, she wrote: "No matter which sex I went to bed with, I never smoked on the street." (from Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady, 1985)

For other uses, see Tocqueville (disambiguation) Alexis de Tocqueville Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville (Verneuil-sur-Seine, Île-de-France, July 29, 1805– Cannes, April 16, 1859) was a French political thinker and historian. ... Sally Ann Struthers (born July 28, 1948) is an American actress and spokesperson, best known as Carroll OConnors and Jean Stapletons daughter, Gloria Bunker Stivic on All In The Family. ...

Books by Florence King

• Southern Ladies and Gentlemen - 1975
• Wasp, Where is Thy Sting? - 1977
• Barbarian Princess (fiction - writing as Laura Buchanan) - 1978
• He: An Irreverent Look at the American Male - 1978
• When Sisterhood was in Flower (fiction) - 1982
• Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady - 1985
• Reflections in a Jaundiced Eye - 1989
• Lump It or Leave It - 1990
• With Charity Toward None: A Fond Look at Misanthropy - 1992
• The Florence King Reader (anthology) - 1995
• STET, Damnit! (National Review column anthology) - 2002
• Deja Reviews: Florence King All Over Again (selected book reviews and essays) - 2006

External links

• The American Enterprise Magazine