Eudora Welty: An Overview:
Though Eudora Welty (1909-2001) traveled all over the world during her lifetime, she lived most of her 92 years in the place she was born: Jackson, Mississippi. As one might expect, her writing, which has been compared to Chekhov's, is deeply rooted in Southern culture.
(For a discussion of her writing, read "'Avoiding Sentimentality: Lessons from 'The Optimist's Daughter.'")
Biographical Information:
The daughter of northerners, Welty grew up in a house full of books. Her father was president of an insurance company, which allowed her to quit working and write full time early on in life, though she had attended college at the University of Wisconsin and received a graduate business degree from Columbia. After school, she returned to the house she grew up in, and continued living there until her death. When asked in an interview why she never married, she replied, "It never came up."
Most Important Works:
Welty published four volumes of short stories including A Curtain of Green and The Wide Net. (For a classic Welty story, check out "Why I Live at the P.O." or "Death of a Traveling Salesman.") She won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Optimist's Daughter in 1973. She also received the National Medal for Literature, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and honorary degrees from Yale and Harvard, among other schools.
Quotes from Eudora Welty:
- “I am a writer who came of a sheltered life. A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within."
- "What I do in writing of any character is to try to enter into the mind, heart, and skin of a human being who is not myself. Whether this happens to be a man or a woman, old or young, with skin black or white, the primary challenge lies in making the jump itself."
Short Story Collections:
- A Curtain of Green (1941)
- The Wide Net (1943)
- The Golden Apples (1949)
- The Bride of the Innisfallen (1955) (Her stories were reissued as The Collected Stories in 1980)
Novels and Other Works:
- "The Robber Bridegroom (1942)
- Delta Wedding (1946)
- The Ponder Heart (1954)
- Losing Battles (1970)
- The Optimist's Daughter (1972)
