Marguerite Waters Smith believed that her daughter, Lula Carson Smith McCullers, would be a genius even before she was born. Reading the secret prenatal signs cultivated in her own sizzling brainpan, Mrs. Smith believed the baby would be a boy, a musical genius, and she would name him Enrico Caruso. When she gave birth to a daughter on February 19, 1917, she was only slightly deterred. She changed the child's name to Lula Carson Waters after her maternal grandmother, but she would be destined for greatness still. Soon she was pressing her daughter's tiny fingers on the piano keys and telling her to play. “Don't you know”, she said, “you'll be a genius someday” (Carr 4).
Nicknamed “Little Precious”, Carson McCullers was her mother's special child. Her brother, Lamar or
1404 words
Citation: Walker, Sue B.. "Carson McCullers". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 May 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5059, accessed 18 April 2024.]
