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* 1973 – Pulitzer Prize, ''The Optimist's Daughter''
* 1973 – Pulitzer Prize, ''The Optimist's Daughter''
* 1980 – [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]]<ref name="nytimes.com"/>
* 1980 – [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]]<ref name="nytimes.com"/>
* 1981 - Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from [[Randolph-Macon Woman's College]] in Lynchburg, Virginia
* 1983 – Invited by [[Harvard University]] to give the first annual Massey Lectures in the History of American Civilization<ref name="Carol Ann Johnston, Eudora Welty">[http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/welty_eudora/ Carol Ann Johnston, "Eudora Welty"], The Mississippi Writer's Page, University of Mississippi, Feb 2006, accessed 25 May 2009</ref>
* 1983 – Invited by [[Harvard University]] to give the first annual Massey Lectures in the History of American Civilization<ref name="Carol Ann Johnston, Eudora Welty">[http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/welty_eudora/ Carol Ann Johnston, "Eudora Welty"], The Mississippi Writer's Page, University of Mississippi, Feb 2006, accessed 25 May 2009</ref>
* 1986 – [[National Medal of Arts]].
* 1986 – [[National Medal of Arts]].

Revision as of 18:36, 10 December 2010

Eudora Welty
OccupationAuthor, photographer
Notable awardsPulitzer Prize for Fiction
1973 The Optimist's Daughter
Literature portal

Eudora Alice Welty (April 13, 1909 – July 23, 2001) was an American author who wrote short stories and novels about the American South. Her book The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973 and Welty was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous awards. She was the first living author to have her works published by the Library of America. Her house in Jackson, Mississippi, is a National Historic Landmark and open to the public as a museum.

Early life

Welty was the daughter of Christian and Chestina Welty. She grew up with brothers Edward and Walter.[1] In 1927, Welty attended the University of Wisconsin for three years. At the insistence of her father, she subsequently attended Columbia Business School for one year to study advertising.[2] However, after his death in 1931, she left school after deciding that the advertising business did not suit her.[3]

Photography

The headstone of Eudora Welty at Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson, Mississippi

During the 1930s, Welty worked as a publicity agent for the Works Progress Administration, a job that sent her around Mississippi. On her own time, she took some memorable photographs during the Great Depression of people from all economic and social classes. 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 PO", which was inspired by a woman she photographed ironing in the back of a small post office.

Writing career

Welty was focused on her writing but continued to take photographs until the 1950s.[4] Her first short story, "Death of a Traveling Salesman", appeared in 1936. Her work attracted the attention of author Katherine Anne Porter, who became a mentor to Welty and wrote the foreword to Welty's first collection of short stories, A Curtain of Green, in 1941. The book immediately 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". Excited by the printing of Welty's works in such publications such as the Atlantic Monthly, the Junior League of Jackson, of which Welty was a member, requested permission from the publishers to reprint some of her works.

Her novel The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1973. In 1992, Welty was awarded the Rea Award for the Short Story 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 and was a common sight among the people of her hometown.

Honors

Short story collections

Novels

Literary criticism and non-fiction

  • Three Papers on Fiction (criticism), 1962
  • The Eye of the Story (selected essays and reviews), 1978
  • One Writer's Beginnings (autobiography), 1983
  • The Norton Book of Friendship (editor, with Roland A. Sharp), 1991
  • 3 Minutes or Less (selected essay), 2001

Commemoration

  • Eudora, the name given to the Internet email program developed by Steve Dorner in 1990, was inspired by Welty's story "Why I Live at the P.O."[11]
  • The state of Mississippi established a "Eudora Welty Day."
  • Each October, Mississippi University for Women hosts the "Eudora Welty Writers' Symposium" to promote and celebrate the work of contemporary Southern writers.[12]
  • Mississippi State University sculpture professor, Critz Campbell, has designed furniture inspired by Welty that has been featured in the Smithsonian Magazine, New York Times, L.A. Times, Washington Post, Elle Magazine and the Discovery Channel.

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/americancollection/ponder/timeline_bio.html
  2. ^ http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/01/07/eudoraWelty.html
  3. ^ http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/01/07/eudoraWelty.html
  4. ^ Karen Rosenberg, "Eudora Welty's work as a young writer: Taking pictures", The New York Times, 14 Jan 2009, accessed 26 May 2009
  5. ^ a b Nicholas Dawidoff, "At Home with Eudora Welty' Only the Typewriter Is Silent", The New York Times, 10 Aug 1995, accessed 26 May 2009
  6. ^ a b Carol Ann Johnston, "Eudora Welty", The Mississippi Writer's Page, University of Mississippi, Feb 2006, accessed 25 May 2009
  7. ^ a b Suzanne Marrs, Eudora Welty: A Biography, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2005, p. 547
  8. ^ Dana Sterling, "Welty reads to audience at Helmerich award dinner", Tulsa World, December 7, 1991.
  9. ^ a b c d Suzanne Marrs, Eudora Welty: A Biography, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2005, p. 549
  10. ^ Carol Ann Johnston, "Eudora Welty", The Mississippi Writer's Page, University of Mississippi, Feb 2006, accessed 25 May 2009
  11. ^ Eudora e-mail program
  12. ^ [1]

Additional reading

  • Suzanne Marrs, Eudora Welty: A Biography, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2005
  • Linda Kuehl (Fall 1972). "Eudora Welty, The Art of Fiction No. 47". The Paris Review.
  • Eudora Welty Foundation
  • Template:Worldcat id
  • Eudora Welty Small Manuscripts Collection (MUM00471) owned by the University of Mississippi Department of Archives and Special Collections.
  • Gwin, Minrose. "Mourning Medgar: Justice, Aesthetics, and the Local" March 11, 2008. Southern Spaces
  • "Why I Live at the P.O."
  • Write TV Public Television Interview with Welty biographer Suzanne Marrs
  • Lifetime Honors – National Medal of Arts

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