When faced with the prospect of writing a research paper on an important female artist for English 224, I mentally seesawed from name to another. I narrowed it down to an author immediately but then I was stumped. This one I didn't like, that one I liked but couldn't find enough material on, and finally, the one I neither liked nor understood! So, like the good student I am, I promptly moved on to an easier assignment - a movie assignment. It was when I got a hankering to watch Fried Green Tomatoes that inspiration struck. I was reminded that Fannie Flagg wrote the book of the same name. I had recently read and enjoyed Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! and I knew this was someone that I wanted to learn more about.
Fannie Flagg is an author that I both enjoy and admire. She has succeeded as an actress, a comedienne, a screenwriter, and an author. The tenacity and vitality she has shown in her careers and her personal life sends us the message that women are strong and capable people. She also uses her humor and storytelling ability to create characters that further that image and encourage women to be independent. She sends the message that if you want to accomplish something you must keep trying to overcome any obstacles in your path. No matter which story she is telling, she's also telling the reader that life is interesting and encouraging us to enjoy it. Flagg never peaches at the readers, but instead veils her messages with a delightful sense of humor. My only complaint about Fannie Flagg is that she hasn't written more books! .
Fannie Flagg was born September 21, 1941, as Patricia Neal, the daughter of a small business owner named William Neal. She lived in an apartment in Birmingham, Alabama as she was growing up. "From the time I was 6 years old I longed to be a writer," says Flagg (Hillard). Her writing and show business career began in fifth grade when she wrote, produced and starred in a three-act comedy called "The Whoopee Girl," which brought the audience to hysteria, but got her expelled from school for using the word "martini.
