A Daring Life: A Biography of Eudora Welty

by Carolyn J. Brown

Overview

Mississippi author Eudora Welty, the first living writer to be published in the Library of America series, mentored many of today's greatest fiction writers and is a fascinating woman, having lived the majority of the twentieth century (1909–2001). Her life reflects a century of change and is closely entwined with many events that mark our recent history. This biography follows this twentieth-century path while telling Welty's story, beginning with her parents and their important influence on her reading and writing life. The chapters that follow focus on her education and her most important teachers; her life during the Depression and how her career, just getting started, is interrupted by World War II; and how she shows independence and courage through her writing during the turbulent civil rights period of the 1950s and 1960s.

After years of caregiving and the deaths of all her immediate family members, Welty persevered and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for The Optimist's Daughter. Her popularity soared in the 1980s after she delivered the three William E. Massey Lectures to standing-room-only crowds at Harvard, and the lectures were later published as One Writer's Beginnings and became a New York Times bestseller. This biography intends to introduce readers to one of the most significant women writers of the past century, a prolific author who transcends her Mississippi roots and has written short stories, novels, and nonfiction that will endure for all time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781628467079
Publisher:	University Press of Mississippi
Publication date:	07/18/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Carolyn J. Brown is a retired teacher, writer, editor, and independent scholar. She is author of The Artist's Sketch: A Biography of Painter Kate Freeman Clark and the award-winning biography Song of My Life: A Biography of Margaret Walker and coeditor of A de Grummond Primer: Highlights of the Children's Literature Collection
all published by University Press of Mississippi. Find her at www.carolynjbrown.net.
Carolyn J. Brown is a retired teacher, writer, editor, and independent scholar. She is author of The Artist’s Sketch: A Biography of Painter Kate Freeman Clark and the award-winning biographies A Daring Life: A Biography of Eudora Welty and Song of My Life: A Biography of Margaret Walker and coeditor of A de Grummond Primer: Highlights of the Children’s Literature Collection, all published by University Press of Mississippi. Find her at www.carolynjbrown.net.

Table of Contents

1 Life in Jackson: Eudora's Early Years 3

2 Eudora's Education 15

3 The 1930s: Finding Her Eye and Her Voice 28

4 Before the War: Friends, Fellowship, and Early Success 37

5 World War II: A Promising Career Interrupted 49

6 The 1960s: Personal and Political Unrest 59

7 Grief and Recovery: The Optimist's Daughter and One Writer's Beginnings 67

8 The Importance of Friendship: Eudora's Final Days 75

Afterword Eudora Welty's House 85

Acknowledgments 90

Appendix 1 Eudora Welty's Artwork 92

Appendix 2 Chronology of Eudora Welty s Life 95

Appendix 3 Books by Eudora Welty 97

Appendix 4 Major Adaptations of Eudora Welty's Works 99

Appendix 5 List of Honorary Degrees and Major Awards 100

Abbreviations Used in the Notes 104

Source Notes 105

Bibliography 113

Credits 117

Index 121

Editorial Reviews

"A Daring Life: A Biography of Eudora Welty is a beautifully written portrait of Eudora Welty and her amazing life. Carolyn J. Brown carries the reader through Welty's long, productive writing career and introduces her family and friends along the way. The book's very readable text, its lovely use of Welty quotes, and its excellent photographs make the work a treasure. This intimate look at Eudora Welty is a welcome addition for her readers."

—William R. Ferris, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

From the Publisher