Why do we love Eudora?

Born into a close-knit family to a mother who loved books so much she once ran back into a burning building to save imperiled volumes of Dickens, Eudora Welty loved stories from the start. As a small child on car trips, she recalled, she would point to the handiest adult and say "Now, talk," demanding a story. Returning to her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi, after college and a brief stint at Columbia University's business school, Eudora moved back in with her parents and held a series of odd jobs during the Depression. She signed on to work for the Works Progress Administration and traveled the South taking photographs and writing stories. Though her work sometimes took her far and wide, Eudora always returned to her parents house in Jackson.

Originally, photography was Eudora's passion, and she had several shows of her works in New York galleries. Eventually, however, her need to tell the stories she nurtured became too great, and she began writing. What is unusual about Eudora Welty's work is that it defies easy categorization. She skipped nimbly through form and tone, handling with equal facility the long novel and the short story, the low drama and the high comedy. In all cases, her keen observations and rooted understanding of the world as she saw it from Jackson shone through and illuminated whatever she concentrated on. Nearing her 80th birthday, Eudora launched a new career, giving the first annual Massey Lectures in the History of American Civilization at Harvard University in 1983. Eudora spoke of the world she had known and that had all but disappeared. Once again, her powers of observation served her well, and the fame she garnered as a southern eminence almost eclipsed that of her literary successes. She always steadfastly refused to categorize or interpret her work, believing that she'd said all she needed to on the page.

Biography:

Born - April 13, 1909
Jackson, Mississippi
Died - July 23, 2001
Jackson, Mississippi

Bibliography:

• A Curtain of Green (1941)
• The Robber Bridegroom (1942)
• The Wide Net (1943)
• Delta Wedding (1946)
• The Golden Apples (1949)
• The Ponder Heart (1954)
• The Bride of Innesfallen (1955)
• Losing Battles (1970)
• One Time, One Place (1971)
• The Optimist's Daughter (1972)
• The Eye of the Story (1978)
• The Collected Stories of EW (1980)
• One Writer's Beginnings (1983) (autobiography)
• EW: Photographs (1989)