Eudora Alice Welty (April 13, 1909 – July 23, 2001) was an American short story writer, novelist and photographer who wrote about the

American South The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

. Her novel '' The Optimist's Daughter'' won the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...

in 1973. Welty received numerous awards, including the

Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merit ...

and the Order of the South. She was the first living author to have her works published by the

Library of America The Library of America (LOA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. Founded in 1979 with seed money from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation, the LOA has published over 300 volumes by authors ran ...

. Her house in

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the capital of and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, along with Raymond. The city had a population of 153,701 at t ...

has been designated as a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places liste ...

and is open to the public as a house museum.

Biography

Eudora Welty was born in

, on April 13, 1909, the daughter of Christian Webb Welty (1879–1931) and Mary Chestina (Andrews) Welty (1883–1966). She grew up with younger brothers Edward Jefferson and Walter Andrews. Her mother was a schoolteacher. Welty soon developed a love of reading reinforced by her mother, who believed that "any room in our house, at any time in the day, was there to read in, or to be read to." Her father, who worked as an insurance executive, was intrigued by gadgets and machines and inspired in Welty a love of mechanical things. She later used technology for symbolism in her stories and also became an avid photographer, like her father.Johnston, Carol Ann.
Mississippi Writer's Page: Eudora Welty
. MWP: University of Mississippi. Retrieved November 28, 2011. She attended Central High School in Jackson. Near the time of her high school graduation, Welty moved with her family to a house built for them at 1119 Pinehurst Street, which remained her permanent address until her death. Wyatt C. Hedrick designed the Weltys' Tudor Revival-style home, which is now known as the Eudora Welty House and Garden. EudoraWeltyHouse

Welty studied at the Mississippi State College for Women from 1925 to 1927, then transferred to the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

to complete her studies in English literature. At the suggestion of her father, she studied advertising at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. Because she graduated in the depths of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, she struggled to find work in New York. Soon after Welty returned to Jackson in 1931, her father died of

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...

. She took a job at a local radio station and wrote about Jackson society for the Memphis newspaper ''

Commercial Appeal ''The Commercial Appeal'' (also known as the ''Memphis Commercial Appeal'') is a daily newspaper of Memphis, Tennessee, and its surrounding metropolitan area. It is owned by the Gannett Company; its former owner, the E. W. Scripps Company, also ...

''. In 1933, she began work for the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

. As a publicity agent, she collected stories, conducted interviews, and took photographs of daily life in Mississippi. She gained a wider view of Southern life and the human relationships that she drew from for her short stories. During this time she also held meetings in her house with fellow writers and friends, a group she called the Night-Blooming Cereus Club. Three years later, she left her job to become a full-time writer. In 1936, she published "The Death of a Traveling Salesman" in the literary magazine ''Manuscript'', and soon published stories in several other notable publications including ''

The Sewanee Review ''The Sewanee Review'' is an American literary magazine established in 1892. It is the oldest continuously published quarterly in the United States. It publishes original fiction and poetry, essays, reviews, and literary criticism. History ''T ...

'' and ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

''. She strengthened her place as an influential Southern writer when she published her first book of short stories, '' A Curtain of Green''. Her new-found success won her a seat on the staff of ''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'', as well as a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

which enabled her to travel to France, England, Ireland, and Germany.House
". Eudora Welty Foundation. Retrieved November 28, 2011. While abroad, she spent some time as a resident lecturer at the universities of

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, becoming the first woman to be permitted into the hall of Peterhouse College. In 1960, she returned home to Jackson to care for her elderly mother and two brothers. After

Medgar Evers Medgar Wiley Evers (; July 2, 1925June 12, 1963) was an American civil rights activist and the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi, who was murdered by Byron De La Beckwith. Evers, a decorated U.S. Army combat veteran who had served i ...

, field secretary of the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&n ...

in Mississippi, was assassinated, she published a story in ''The New Yorker'', "Where Is the Voice Coming From?". She wrote it in the first person as the assassin. In 1971, she published a collection of her photographs depicting the Great Depression, titled ''One Time, One Place''. Two years later, she received the

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published durin ...

for her novel '' The Optimist's Daughter''. She lectured at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

, and eventually adapted her talks as a three-part memoir titled ''One Writer's Beginnings''. She continued to live in her family house in Jackson until her death from natural causes on July 23, 2001. She is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson. Her headstone has a quote from ''The Optimist's Daughter'': "For her life, any life, she had to believe, was nothing but the continuity of its love." Throughout the 1970s, Welty carried on a lengthy correspondence with novelist

Ross Macdonald Ross Macdonald was the main pseudonym used by the American-Canadian writer of crime fiction Kenneth Millar (; December 13, 1915 – July 11, 1983). He is best known for his series of hardboiled novels set in Southern California and featur ...

, creator of the Lew Archer series of detective novels.

Photography

While Welty worked as a publicity agent for the

, she took photographs of people from all economic and social classes in her spare time. From the early 1930s, her photographs show Mississippi's rural poor and the effects of the Great Depression. Collections of her photographs were published as ''One Time, One Place'' (1971) and ''Photographs'' (1989). Her photography was the basis for several of her short stories, including " Why I Live at the P.O.", which was inspired by a woman she photographed ironing in the back of a small post office. Although focused on her writing, Welty continued to take photographs until the 1950s.

Writing career and major works

President Jimmy Carter presents the Medal of Freedom Award to Eudora Welty

Welty's first short story, "Death of a Traveling Salesman", was published in 1936. Her work attracted the attention of author

Katherine Anne Porter Katherine Anne Porter (May 15, 1890 – September 18, 1980) was an American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist. Her 1962 novel ''Ship of Fools'' was the best-selling novel in America that year, but her sh ...

, who became a mentor to her and wrote the foreword to Welty's first collection of short stories, ''A Curtain of Green'', in 1941. The book established Welty as one of American literature's leading lights, and featured the stories "Why I Live at the P.O.", "Petrified Man", and the frequently anthologized "

A Worn Path "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty is a short story about an elderly African American woman who undertakes a familiar journey on a road in a rural area to acquire medicine for her grandson. She expresses herself, both to her surroundings and in short ...

". Excited by the printing of Welty's works in publications such as ''

The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', the

Junior League The Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc. (Junior League or JL) is a private, nonprofit educational women's volunteer organization aimed at improving communities and the social, cultural, and political fabric of civil society. With ...

of Jackson, of which Welty was a member, requested permission from the publishers to reprint some of her works. She eventually published over forty short stories, five novels, three works of non-fiction, and one children's book. The short story "Why I Live at the P.O." was published in 1941, with two others, by ''The Atlantic Monthly''. It was republished later that year in Welty's first collection of short stories, ''A Curtain of Green''. The story is about Sister and how she becomes estranged from her family and ends up living at the post office where she works. Seen by critics as quality

Southern literature Southern United States literature consists of American literature written about the Southern United States or by writers from the region. Literature written about the American South first began during the colonial era, and developed significant ...

, the story comically captures family relationships. Like most of her short stories, Welty masterfully captures Southern idiom and places importance on location and customs. "A Worn Path" was also published in ''The Atlantic Monthly'' and ''A Curtain of Green''. It is seen as one of Welty's finest short stories, winning the second-place O. Henry Award in 1941. Welty's debut novel, ''The Robber Bridegroom'' (1942), deviated from her previous psychologically inclined works, presenting static, fairy-tale characters. Some critics suggest that she worried about "encroaching on the turf of the male literary giant to the north of her in Oxford, Mississippi—William Faulkner", and therefore wrote in a fairy-tale style instead of a historical one. Most critics and readers saw it as a modern Southern fairy-tale and noted that it employs themes and characters reminiscent of the

Grimm Brothers The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among t ...

' works. Immediately after the murder of

in 1963, Welty wrote ''Where Is the Voice Coming From?''. As she later said, she wondered: "Whoever the murderer is, I know him: not his identity, but his coming about, in this time and place. That is, I ought to have learned by now, from here, what such a man, intent on such a deed, had going on in his mind. I wrote his story—my fiction—in the first person: about that character's point of view". Welty's story was published in ''The New Yorker'' soon after

Byron De La Beckwith Byron De La Beckwith Jr. (November 9, 1920 – January 21, 2001) was an American murderer, white supremacist and member of the Ku Klux Klan from Greenwood, Mississippi. He murdered the civil rights leader Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963. Two tria ...

's arrest. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, ''The Optimist's Daughter'' (1972) is believed by some to be Welty's best novel. It was written at a much later date than the bulk of her work. As poet Howard Moss wrote in ''The New York Times'', the book is "a miracle of compression, the kind of book, small in scope but profound in its implications, that rewards a lifetime of work". The plot focuses on family struggles when the daughter and the second wife of a judge confront each other in the limited confines of a hospital room while the judge undergoes eye surgery. Welty gave a series of addresses at Harvard University, revised and published as ''One Writer's Beginnings'' (Harvard, 1983). It was the first book published by

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...

to be a '' New York Times'' Best Seller (at least 32 weeks on the list), and runner-up for the 1984

National Book Award for Nonfiction The National Book Award for Nonfiction is one of five U.S. annual National Book Awards, which are given by the National Book Foundation to recognize outstanding literary work by U.S. citizens. They are awards "by writers to writers". The panelists ...

."Welty Book is First Harvard U. Best Seller", Edwin McDowell, ''The New York Times'', March 13, 1984, page C16."Three Writers Win Book Awards", ''The New York Times'', November 16, 1984, page C32. In 1992, she was awarded the

Rea Award for the Short Story The Rea Award for the Short Story is an annual award given to a living American or Canadian author chosen for unusually significant contributions to short story fiction. The Award The Rea Award is named after Michael M. Rea, who was engaged in t ...

for her lifetime contributions to the American short story. Welty was a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, founded in 1987. She also taught creative writing at colleges and in workshops. She lived near Jackson's

Belhaven College Belhaven University (Belhaven or BU) is a private evangelical Christian university in Jackson, Mississippi. Founded in 1883, the university offers traditional majors, programs of general studies, and pre-professional programs in Christian Ministr ...

and was a common sight among the people of her home town. Welty personally influenced several young Mississippi writers in their careers including

Richard Ford Richard Ford (born February 16, 1944) is an American novelist and short story writer. His best-known works are the novel ''The Sportswriter'' and its sequels, ''Independence Day'', ''The Lay of the Land'' and ''Let Me Be Frank With You'', and the ...

Ellen Gilchrist Ellen Gilchrist (born February 20, 1935) is an American novelist, short story writer, and poet. She won a National Book Award for her 1984 collection of short stories, ''Victory Over Japan''. Life Gilchrist was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, a ...

, and Elizabeth Spencer. She was a Charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers.

Literary criticism related to Welty's fiction

Welty was a prolific writer who created stories in multiple genres. Throughout her writing are the recurring themes of the paradox of human relationships, the importance of place (a recurring theme in most Southern writing), and the importance of mythological influences that help shape the theme. Welty said that her interest in the relationships between individuals and their communities stemmed from her natural abilities as an observer. Perhaps the best examples can be found within the short stories in ''A Curtain of Green''. "Why I Live at the P.O." comically illustrates the conflict between Sister and her immediate community, her family. This particular story uses lack of proper communication to highlight the underlying theme of the paradox of human connection. Another example is Miss Eckhart of ''The Golden Apples'', who is considered an outsider in her town. Welty shows that this piano teacher's independent lifestyle allows her to follow her passions, but also highlights Miss Eckhart's longing to start a family and to be seen by the community as someone who belongs in Morgana. Her stories are often characterized by the struggle to retain identity while keeping community relationships. Place is vitally important to Welty. She believed that place is what makes fiction seem real, because with place come customs, feelings, and associations. Place answers the questions, "What happened? Who's here? Who's coming?" Place is a prompt to memory; thus the human mind is what makes place significant. This is the job of the storyteller. “A Worn Path” is one short story that proves how place shapes how a story is perceived. Within the tale, the main character, Phoenix, must fight to overcome the barriers within the vividly described Southern landscape as she makes her trek to the nearest town. "The Wide Net" is another of Welty's short stories that uses place to define mood and plot. The river in the story is viewed differently by each character. Some see it as a food source, others see it as deadly, and some see it as a sign that "the outside world is full of endurance". Welty is noted for using mythology to connect her specific characters and locations to universal truths and themes. Examples can be found within the short story "A Worn Path", the novel ''

Delta Wedding ''Delta Wedding'' is a 1946 Southern fiction novel by Eudora Welty. Set in 1923, the novel tells of the experiences of the Fairchild family in a domestic drama-filled week leading up to Dabney Fairchild's wedding to the family overseer, Troy Fl ...

'', and the collection of short stories ''The Golden Apples''. In "A Worn Path", the character Phoenix has much in common with the mythical bird. Phoenixes are said to be red and gold and are known for their endurance and dignity. Phoenix, the old Black woman, is described as being clad in a red handkerchief with undertones of gold and is noble and enduring in her difficult quest for the medicine to save her grandson. In "Death of a Traveling Salesman", the husband is given characteristics common to

Prometheus In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning " forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titan god of fire. Prometheus is best known for defying the gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, kn ...

. He comes home after bringing fire to his boss and is full of male libido and physical strength. Welty also refers to the figure of

Medusa In Greek mythology, Medusa (; Ancient Greek: Μέδουσα "guardian, protectress"), also called Gorgo, was one of the three monstrous Gorgons, generally described as winged human females with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Those ...

, who in "Petrified Man" and other stories is used to represent powerful or vulgar women. Locations can also allude to mythology, as Welty proves in her novel ''Delta Wedding''. As Professor Veronica Makowsky from the University of Connecticut writes, the setting of the Mississippi Delta has "suggestions of the goddess of love,

Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols incl ...

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

-shells like that upon which Venus rose from the sea and female genitalia, as in the mound of Venus and Delta of Venus". The title ''The Golden Apples'' refers to the difference between people who seek silver apples and those who seek golden apples. It is drawn from

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

' poem "The Song of Wandering Aengus", which ends "''The silver apples of the moon, The golden apples of the sun''". It also refers to myths of a golden apple being awarded after a contest. Welty used the symbol to illuminate the two types of attitudes her characters could take about life.

Honors

* 1941: O. Henry Award, second place, "

" * 1942: O. Henry Award, first place, "The Wide Net" * 1943: O. Henry Award, first place, "Livvie is Back" * 1954:

William Dean Howells William Dean Howells (; March 1, 1837 – May 11, 1920) was an American realist novelist, literary critic, and playwright, nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters". He was particularly known for his tenure as editor of ''The Atlantic Monthly'', ...

medal for fiction, ''The Ponder Heart''Dawidoff, Nicholas. (August 10, 1995.)
At Home with Eudora Welty: Only the Typewriter Is Silent
. ''The New York Times''. Retrieved November 28, 2011. * 1968: O. Henry Award, first place, "The Demonstrators” * 1969: Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

* 1970: The Edward MacDowell Medal * 1973:

, '' The Optimist's Daughter''"Fiction"
''Past winners & finalists by category''. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-11-19. * 1979: Honorary Doctorate of Letters from

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Un ...

in Urbana, Illinois * 1980:

* 1981: Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia * 1983:

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

for the first paperback edition of ''The Collected Works of Eudora Welty''"National Book Awards – 1983"
National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-01-26.
(With essay by Robin Black from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.) Welty's ''Collected Works'' won the 1983 award for paperback Fiction. From 1980 to 1983 in National Book Awards history there were dual hardcover and paperback awards in most categories. Most of the paperback award-winners were reprints, including this one. * 1983: Invited by

to give the first annual Massey Lectures in the History of American Civilization, revised and published as ''One Writer's Beginnings'' * 1983:

St. Louis Literary Award The St. Louis Literary Award has been presented yearly since 1967 to a distinguished figure in literature. It is sponsored by the Saint Louis University Library Associates. Winners Past Recipients of the Award: *2023 Neil Gaiman *2022 Arundhat ...

from the

Saint Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university with campuses in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, United States, and Madrid, Spain. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, ...

Library Associates * 1985: Achievement Award,

American Association of University Women The American Association of University Women (AAUW), officially founded in 1881, is a non-profit organization that advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. The organization has a nationwide network of 170,000 ...

* 1986:

National Medal of Arts The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and patrons of the arts. A prestigious American honor, it is the highest honor given to artists and arts patrons ...

. * 1990: A recipient of the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts, Lifetime Achievement, which was the state of Mississippi's recognition of her extraordinary contribution to American Letters. * 1991:

National Book Foundation The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established, "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America". Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: 'The Joy Luc ...

Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters"Distinguished Contribution to American Letters"
National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-11.
(With acceptance speech by Welty.)Marrs, p. 547 * 1991: Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award. The Helmerich Award is presented annually by the Tulsa Library Trust. * 1992: Rea Award for the Short StoryMarrs, p. 549 * 1992: PEN/Malamud Award for the Short Story * 1993: Charles Frankel Prize,

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

* 1993: Distinguished Alumni Award, American Association of State Colleges and Universities * 1996: Made a ''

Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon B ...

'' by the French government * 1998: First living author to have her works published in the prestigious

series * 2000: America Award for a lifetime contribution to international writing * 2000: Induction into the

National Women's Hall of Fame The National Women's Hall of Fame (NWHF) is an American institution incorporated in 1969 by a group of men and women in Seneca Falls, New York, although it did not induct its first enshrinees until 1973. As of 2021, it had 303 inductees. Induc ...

Commemoration

* In 1990,

Steve Dorner Steve Dorner is an American software engineer who developed the Eudora e-mail client in 1988 as a part of his work as a staff member at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dorner was hired by Qualcomm in July 1992 and Eudora was subsequ ...

named his e-mail program "

Eudora Eudora may refer to: Places * Eudora, Arkansas, a city * Eudora, Kansas, a city * Eudora Township, Douglas County, Kansas * Eudora, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Eudora, Missouri, an unincorporated community Other * 217 Eudora, an as ...

", inspired by Welty's story "Why I Live at the P.O." Welty was reportedly "pleased and amused" by the tribute. * In 1973, the state of Mississippi established May 2 as "Eudora Welty Day". * Each October,

Mississippi University for Women Mississippi University for Women (MUW or "The W") is a coeducational public university in Columbus, Mississippi. It was formerly named the Industrial Institute and College for the Education of White Girls and later the Mississippi State College ...

hosts the "Eudora Welty Writers' Symposium" to promote and celebrate the work of contemporary Southern writers. *

Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...

sculpture professor Critz Campbell has designed furniture inspired by Welty, that has been featured in '' Smithsonian'' magazine, ''The New York Times'', the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'', ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'' and ''

Elle ''Elle'' (stylized ''ELLE'') is a worldwide women's magazine of French origin that offers a mix of fashion and beauty content, together with culture, society and lifestyle. The title means "she" or "her" in French. ''Elle'' is considered the w ...

'' magazine, and on the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Chan ...

. * A portrait of Eudora Welty hangs in the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian; it was painted by her friend Mildred Nungester Wolfe. *On September 10, 2018, Eudora Welty became the first author honored with a historical marker through the

Mississippi Writers Trail The Mississippi Writers Trail is a series of historical markers which celebrate the literary, social, historical, and cultural contributions of Mississippi's most acclaimed and influential writers. An advisory committee of state cultural agencies ov ...

. The historical marker was installed at the Eudora Welty House and Garden in Jackson, Mississippi.

Works

Short story collections

* '' Death of a Traveling Salesman'',1936 * '' A Curtain of Green'', 1941 * ''A Worn Path'', 1941 * ''The Wide Net and Other Stories'', 1943 * '' Music from Spain'', 1948 * '' The Golden Apples'', 1949 * ''Selected Stories'', 1954 * ''The Bride of the Innisfallen and Other Stories'', 1955 * ''Thirteen Stories'', 1965 * '' The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty'', 1980 * ''Moon Lake and Other Stories'', 1980 * ''Morgana: Two Stories from The Golden Apples'', 1988

Novels

* '' The Robber Bridegroom'' (novella), 1942 ** Musical based on the novella * ''

'', 1946 * ''

The Ponder Heart ''The Ponder Heart'' is a novella written by Eudora Welty and illustrated by Joe Krush, originally published in ''The New Yorker'' in 1953, and republished by Harcourt Brace in 1954. The plot of ''The Ponder Heart'' follows Daniel Ponder, a wealt ...

'', 1954Adapted by

Alice Parker Alice Parker (born December 16, 1925) is an American composer, arranger, conductor, and teacher. She has authored five operas, eleven song-cycles, thirty-three cantatas, eleven works for chorus and orchestra, forty-seven choral suites, and ...

into a two-act opera which premiered in Jackson, Mississippi in September 1982. The performance was reviewed by Edward Rothstein of The New York Times. * '' The Shoe Bird'' (juvenile), 1964 * '' Losing Battles'', 1970 * '' The Optimist's Daughter'', 1972

Essays

* ''The Eye of the Story'', 1979 * '' One Writer's Beginnings'', 1984 * ''On Writing'', 2002

Notes

References

Notes

Citations

* Ford, Richard, and Michael Kreyling, eds. ''Welty: Stories, Collections, & Memoir''. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc., 1998. Print. * Makowsky, Veronica. ''Eudora Welty''. American Writers. Ed. Stephen Wagley. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998. 343–356. Print. * Marrs, Suzanne. ''Eudora Welty: A Biography''. Orlando: Harcourt, Inc., 2005. Print. 50–52. * Welty, Eudora. ''The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty''. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1980. .

External links

* *

Resources

Eudora Welty Foundation

Eudora Welty Society Homepage
Includes resources on Welty and Southern literature.
Eudora Welty webpage at The Mississippi Writers Page
Presented by the Department of English at the University of Mississippi.
Eudora Welty Small Manuscripts Collection (MUM00471)
Collection owned and maintained by the University of Mississippi Department of Archives and Special Collections.

Writings on

Fiction Writers Review on Eudora Welty's "Why I Live at the P.O."

1987 Whiting Writers' Award Keynote Speech
{{DEFAULTSORT:Welty, Eudora 1909 births 2001 deaths 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American photographers American women novelists American women short story writers Columbia Business School alumni Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Deaths from pneumonia in Mississippi Members of the Junior League Mississippi University for Women alumni National Book Award winners National Humanities Medal recipients O. Henry Award winners PEN/Malamud Award winners Writers from Jackson, Mississippi People of the New Deal arts projects Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winners University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni Works Progress Administration workers Writers of American Southern literature 20th-century American short story writers Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Novelists from Mississippi 20th-century American women photographers Fulbright alumni Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters

Biography

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Writing career and major works

Literary criticism related to Welty's fiction

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Writings on