Florence Virginia King was an American novelist, essayist, and columnist.
The majority of King’s works under her name have been non-fiction essays, with most of her writing focusing on the American South. Her first book published under her name was Southern Ladies and Gentlemen in 1975. This work offers a humorous guide to the South for Yankees. Her most popular book, Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady (1985), is a semi-autobiographical work that delves into, among other things, King's grandmother's attempts to shape her into a Southern Lady.
In addition to her non-fiction works, she authored a historical romance novel, The Barbarian Princess, using the pseudonym Laura Buchanan. King also acknowledged writing numerous pornographic stories, pulp paperback books, and erotica under various pseudonyms.
Until her retirement in 2002, 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 described it. After coming out of retirement in 2006, she began writing a new column for National Review entitled "The Bent Pin".
In Confessions, King reveals having had relationships with both men and women during college. She deeply fell in love with one woman who tragically died in a car crash. This relationship was further detailed in Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady.