Florence King, American novelist, Died at 80

  Writers

Florence Virginia King was born on January 5, 1936, and died January 6, 2016.

She was an American novelist, essayist and columnist.

Florence received her B.A. in history, in 1957, from American University in Washington D.C., where she was inducted into Phi Alpha Theta.

Miss King also attended the University of Mississippi as a graduate student but did not complete her M.A. degree after discovering she could make a living as a writer.

Her early writings were focused on the American South and those who live there, much of King’s later work has been published in National Review.

Florence column in the 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 said in the magazine, until her retirement in 2002.

King then came out of retirement in 2006, she began writing a new column for National Review entitled “The Bent Pin.”

Florence King was a traditionalist conservative, but not a “movement conservative,” and she objects to much of the populist direction of the contemporary American Right.

Miss King labels herself as a “misanthrope”.

Florence was an active Episcopalian (though she often refers to her agnosticism), a member of Phi Alpha Theta, and a monarchist.

Florence King passed away at 80 yrs old.