 Table of Contents: A Point of View The Early Years 1. The Teenager 2. Richard Wright, 1923-1925 3. Role Models 4. The W, 1925-1927 5. On, Wisconsin, 1927-1929 6. Columbia, 1929-1931 7. Home Again, 1931 Finding Her Feet 8. Local Literati, 1931-1935 9. The Journalist, 1933-1935 10. The WPA, 1935-1936 11. Photography, 1935-1937 12. The First Stories, 1931-1936 13. Getting Published, 1936-1940 14. More Stories, 1936-1940 15. Diarmuid Russell, 1940 16. Bread Loaf, 1940 17. The Natchez Trace, 1940 18. The Atlantic Monthly, 1940-1941 19. A Curtain of Green, 1941 20. Henry Miller, 1941 21. Yaddo, 1941 22. Publication Party, 1941 23. War Comes, 1941 24. The Robber Bridegroom, 1942 25. Leaving Doubleday, 1942 26. Trilling vs. Warren, 1943 27. The New York Times Book Review, 1944 28. How to Make a Novel, 1945 29. The Other Jackson Writer, 1945 30. Delta Wedding, 1946 31. Portrait Painted, 1946 Stretching Her Wings 32. A Literary Magazine? 1946 33. San Francisco, 1946-1947 34. San Francisco Again, 1947 35. The Levee Press, 1948 36. Musical Comedy, 1948 37. Film Scripts, 1948-1949 38. The Golden Apples, 1949 39. William Faulkner, 1949 40. Abroad, 1949-1950 41. England and Ireland, 1950 42. The Civil War Redux, 1950 43. Elizabeth Bowen, 1950 44. Bowen's Court, 1951 45. The Enigma, 1951 46. To and Fro, 1952-1953 47. The Ponder Heart, 1954 48. The First Honorary Degree, 1954 49. Cambridge, 1954 50. Reynolds Price, 1955 51. Uncle Daniel on Stage, 1956 The Last Years 52. Dark Days Begin, 1956 53. A Glimpse of the World, 1958-1959 54. Walter Dies, 1959-1961 55. Writing in Dark Days, 1962-1964 56. The College Visitor, 1960-1980 57. Millsaps, 1964 58. The Last Short Story, 1964-1966 59. Death and Bereavement, 1966 60. Grief into Fiction, 1966 61. Losing Battles, 1970 62. Another Book, More Honors, 1971 63. Glory, Laud, and Honor, 1972-1974 64. The Robber Sings, 1974-1976 65. The Image, 1975-1977 66. Still Reading, 1977 67. Oxford, 1979 68. "Mississippi Joins the World," 1980 69. Uncle Daniel Sings, 1982 70. Harvard and Stanford, 1983 71. One Writer's Beginnings, 1984 72. The Last Chapter Acknowledgments A Note on Sources Notes Photo Credits Index |
Eudora: A Writer's Life"Your private life should be kept private," said Eudora Welty in response to a question about the relevance of biography. "My own I don't think would particularly interest anybody, for that matter. But I'd guard it; I feel strongly about that. They'd have a hard time trying to find out something about me." This first biography of Eudora Welty makes a significant contribution to the world of letters as a chronicle of the life and achievements of one of our greatest living authors, a woman of paramount importance in the American literary canon. From a Mississippi childhood to a brief editorial career in New York, from the sale of her first short story to her beloved and bestselling memoir--One Writer's Beginnings, which she wrote at age seventy-five--this biography charts the details and moments that contributed to the development of Welty's unique vision and unforgettable voice. Here, too, are her literary influences, including her correspondence and meeting with the great man Faulkner, the invaluable friendships with Katherine Anne Porter and Elizabeth Bowen, the rivalry with Carson McCullers, and the small circle of lifelong confidants to whom Eudora entrusted her work: agent Diarmuid Russell, editor Mary Lou Aswell, and Robert Penn Warren. Ann Waldron brings together the details and moments of Welty's life, and shows how this writer's sensibility is formed and informed above all by a sense of place and purpose. Elegant and evenhanded, respectful and authoritative, the first biography to chart the life of this national treasure is required reading for Welty fans everywhere. Praise for Eudora: A Writer's Life "Imaginatively conceived, written in almost cinematic bursts of rich prose, Eudora: A Writer's Life unfolds like a movie of Eudora Welty's life and art. You come away with a vivid picture of what it must have been like to be a gifted young writer in the South in the earlier years of the century. Ann Waldron's exceptionally sensitive literary portrait will appeal to Welty lovers, as well as to readers just discovering her work." --Marion Meade, author of Dorothy Parker--What Fresh Hell Is This? "Eudora Welty is a national treasure, a gifted storyteller whose beloved yet distant life has remained beyond the pale of an invasive public. Now, in fitting tribute, Ann Waldron has written an appreciative, sensitive biography--as gracious, as respectful, and as slyly persistent as Welty herself." --Brenda Wineapple, author of Sister Brother: Gertrude and Leo Stein "It does more than chart the rise of an ugly duckling--it celebrates her achievement in a wry, offbeat and appealing way." --Professor David Nokes, author of Jane Austen: A Life "This patiently assembled book is not only a satisfying account of the external events in Eudora Welty's life, but it enables us to think about some of Welty's most famous stories in entirely new ways." --Kenneth S. Lynn, author of Hemingway "Eudora Welty, a great Southern author, and Ann Waldron, a great Southern reporter/ --Robert Sherrill, author of Gothic Politics in the Deep South |
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