Speaking Volumes | Writer and photographer Eudora Welty was a master of the short story
The short story. A compact piece of prose typically read in one sitting, filled with enough character development and drama to hold any reader’s attention. Especially a short story that can captivate a reader with rich language and a flow that carries her swiftly through its pages. One standout author in the world of short story is Eudora Welty.
Eudora Alice Welty was born on April 13, 1909, in Jackson, Miss., to Christian Webb Welty and Mary Chestina Andrews Welty. Eudora loved to read, encouraged by her schoolteacher mother. Her father was an insurance executive who enjoyed mechanical gadgets and machines, which he shared with Eudora. She later used her knowledge taught by her father to become an avid photographer. Eudora graduated in 1929 with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison after transferring from Mississippi State College for Women. She later pursued her business degree at Columbia University. After graduating from college, Eudora used her photography skills to share her photos with the Works Progress Administration’s guide to Mississippi. In 1989, the WPA exhibited a collection of her photographs she took for the administration, titled “Photographs.”
Welty published her first short story in the literary magazine “Manuscript” in 1936: “Death of a Traveling Salesman,” which brought accolades as “one of the best stories of its time.” This would be a clarifying moment for Eudora as she realized a penchant for writing about human relationships. Five years later, Welty published her first book of short stories titled “A Curtain of Green,” using her earlier photographs as inspiration for her characters. In 1942, she stepped out of the box and wrote a novella fairytale based upon Mississippi’s fabled past. Her upbringing in the American south influenced her writing style, detailing intimate moments within relationships and the importance of place.
Written later than her other works in 1972, Eudora wrote a semi-autobiographical short novel titled “The Optimist’s Daughter,” that would win the Pulitzer Prize. The story centers around the relationship between parent and child, and the intricate dynamics within families. The Pulitzer was not the only award Welty earned. Among others, “The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty” won the National Book Award in 1980. And, in 1979, Eudora was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter. Eudora Welty died on July 3, 2001, in her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi, after a short illness, at 92. Welty continued to receive awards and was considered a contemporary American author, sharing similar prestige as other American great writers, well into the end of her life and beyond.
Check out the biography “Eudora: A Writer’s Life” by Ann Waldron, “Eudora Welty: A Biography,” by Suzanne Marrs (available on Hoopla), and “The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty,” written by Eudora herself.
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Speaking Volumes is written by members of the staff at the Manatee County Public Library. Brooke Smith is an information services librarian.