Eudora Welty: A Writer's Life
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Overview
Eudora Welty is a beloved institution of Southern fiction and American literature, whose closely guarded privacy has prevented a full-scale study of her life and work--until now.A significant contribution to the world of letters, Ann Waldron's biography chronicles the history and achievements of one of our greatest living authors, from a Mississippi childhood to the sale of her first short story, from her literary friendships with Katherine Anne Porter and Elizabeth Bowen to her rivalry with Carson McCullers.
Elegant and authoritative, this first biography to chart the life of a national treasure is a must-have for Welty fans and scholars everywhere.
Synopsis
Eudora Welty is a beloved institution of Southern fiction and American literature, whose closely guarded privacy has prevented a full-scale study of her life and work—until now.
A significant contribution to the world of letters, Ann Waldron's biography chronicles the history and achievements of one of our greatest living authors, from a Mississippi childhood to the sale of her first short story, from her literary friendships with Katherine Anne Porter and Elizabeth Bowen to her rivalry with Carson McCullers.
Elegant and authoritative, this first biography to chart the life of a national treasure is a must-have for Welty fans and scholars everywhere.
Library Journal
Given Welty's vocal distaste for any intrusion into her private life, it is difficult from the beginning of this unauthorized biography to be open to what Waldron (Hodding Carter, LJ 6/1/93) writes. Prodded by an undefined need to write about Welty, Waldron works primarily from published articles and interviews and the letters and papers she had access to, as Welty urged most of her friends not to cooperate. The biography begins in Welty's teenage years, opening with comments about her "homeliness," and follows her on many journeys across the country and through the worlds of publishing and photography. Her friendships with famous writers, dinner parties, and trips to visit Elizabeth Bowen and Katherine Anne Porter are interesting, but in a distant way. Full of plodding and sometimes quite irrelevant details that bog down the narrative, this biography lacks vitality, movement, and the psychic energy that would inform us about Welty's motivations and desires. Without Welty's cooperation, this type of biography isn't possible.--Barbara O'Hara, Free Lib. of Philadelphia
Editorials
Library Journal
Given Welty's vocal distaste for any intrusion into her private life, it is difficult from the beginning of this unauthorized biography to be open to what Waldron (Hodding Carter, LJ 6/1/93) writes. Prodded by an undefined need to write about Welty, Waldron works primarily from published articles and interviews and the letters and papers she had access to, as Welty urged most of her friends not to cooperate. The biography begins in Welty's teenage years, opening with comments about her "homeliness," and follows her on many journeys across the country and through the worlds of publishing and photography. Her friendships with famous writers, dinner parties, and trips to visit Elizabeth Bowen and Katherine Anne Porter are interesting, but in a distant way. Full of plodding and sometimes quite irrelevant details that bog down the narrative, this biography lacks vitality, movement, and the psychic energy that would inform us about Welty's motivations and desires. Without Welty's cooperation, this type of biography isn't possible.--Barbara O'Hara, Free Lib. of PhiladelphiaJames Olney
There has been in our time no more assiduous practitioner of fiction than Eudora Welty, and for the mystery that pervades her work and is her artistry there can be no explanation (a la Waldron), only gratitude.-- The New York Times Book Review
Kirkus Reviews
An unauthorized (and the first full-length) biography of the grande dame of southern literature succeeds only partially in its daunting task: to shed light on the personal life of an intensely private woman who prefers that her work speak for itself.Faced with Welty's polite but firm refusal to cooperate, Waldron (Hodding Carter: The Reconstruction of a Racist, 1993) perseveres where several potential biographers quit. Shut out by Welty's friends, she gleans what she can from letters, other writers' biographies, and distant acquaintances. Welty's autobiographical writing, One Writer's Beginnings, and prefaces to her photography collections, provide additional background already known to devotees. Waldron's main accomplishment is consolidating the writer's far-flung commentary on her work from newspapers and writing-anthology interviews. Waldron remains respectful, even when entertaining speculation about the unmarried writer's sexuality, including the nature of her intense friendship with British writer Elizabeth Bowen, or her difficult relationship with her mother. The literary influence of Katherine Anne Porter and agent Diarmuid Russell are detailed, as is Welty's antipathy for Carson McCullers. Revelations are generally minor (her first book, A Curtain of Green, was titled by her publisher's sales staff, for example), but there are genuine insights. Examining the society column Welty wrote in the 1930s for the Memphis Commercial Appeal, Waldron sees "flashes of the wit and the eye for detail, even the feeling for family, that would distinguish Eudora's fiction." She finds it notable that, despite familiarity with upper-class society, Welty "did not become the Edith Wharton of Jackson," a chronicler of belles and balls, but wrote about poor whites and blacks she met on her travels as a WPA publicist. The chapter on Welty's WPA work illustrates what is perhaps an unavoidable shortcoming (but a shortcoming nonetheless): Waldron's research yields barely three pages on this important formative period.
A passable introduction to a hugely important writer—more a starting point than a comprehensive summing up.