Richard M. Cook, Carson McCullers, Ungar, 1975.

The twenty-five pages that Cook devotes to the novel
cover all of the major themes and characters.

Oliver Evans, The Ballad of Carson McCullers: A Biography, Coward McCann, 1966.

Published during McCullers' lifetime, this book contains
the early synopsis of the novel, "Author's Outline
of The Mute" (which was the original title of The
Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
). Invaluable to students of
this book.

Lawrence Graver, "Penumbral Insistence: McCullers's Early Novels," in Carson McCullers, edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom, Chelsea House Publishers, 1986, pp. 53-67.

In a few pages, Graver gives a concrete understanding
of the characters in this novel and of the characters
in Reflections in a Golden Eye and The Ballad
of the Sad Cafe.

Margaret McDowell, Carson McCullers, Twayne, 1980.

McDowell's analysis of this novel is divided into
themes: "Isolation as Man's Fate," "The Quartet...