Eudora Welty: A Writer's Life - Softcover

Waldron, Ann

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385476485 ISBN 13: 9780385476485

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1999

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.

About this title

Review

"They'd have a hard time trying to find out something about me," Eudora Welty once told an interviewer to explain her fierce aversion to biography. Ann Waldron, who has written well-received biographies of Southern novelist Caroline Gordon and editor Hodding Carter, discovered just how hard a time when she set out to write the first, and of course unauthorized, biography of this "sanctified, canonized, apotheosized" literary figure. But Waldron persisted to brilliant results: Eudora: A Writer's Life is not only a fully detailed portrait but a fair and balanced one.

"Ugly to the point of being grotesque," as a fellow Mississippian said of her, Welty, who was born in Jackson in 1909, always made her way by charm, wit, and an offbeat sense of humor. Though Waldron admits that few of Welty's friends would talk to her, she nonetheless tracked down amazing amounts of new material on her personal life--her tense, guilt-ridden relationship with her widowed mother; her sustaining friendships with such literary figures as Katherine Anne Porter, Elizabeth Bowen, and Reynolds Price; and her possible romance with the mysterious John Robinson, who, like many of the men in Welty's life, turned out to be gay.

Waldron does a creditable, if at times perfunctory, job of following the trajectory of Welty's literary career--from her first hauntingly strange short stories collected in A Curtain of Green to whimsical productions of her midcareer like The Ponder Heart to her "warm, appealing, beautifully written" memoir, One Writer's Beginnings. Literary analysis is scant here, but that's fine, because many others have written at length and in depth about Welty's work. But only Ann Waldron has dared to do the life--and she has succeeded in making it clear, sympathetic, respectful, and wonderfully readable. --David Laskin

From the Back Cover

"A judicious account, written against the odds...[Eudora Welty] is lucky that Ann Waldron is her first biographer."
--The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"A biography of admirable and considerable detail...engaging and well researched."
--Chicago Tribune

"Waldron paints an appealing portrait of this shy, yet gifted storyteller."
--The Christian Science Monitor

"Rich in detail and anecdote, this is an elegant and worthwhile book about an amiable woman who has become one of America's greatest writers."
--The Tampa Tribune

"Fans of Eudora Welty should not miss this."
--The Oklahoman (Oklahoma City)

"A lively chronicle....Waldron draws persuasive conclusions about Welty's secrets."
--The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)

"Adds dimension and context to Welty's carefully protected image....By the end of Waldron's carefully researched treatise, Welty emerges even more of a heroine, even more beloved than she was before."
--The Miami Herald

"Truly impressive....At last, a solid foundation is in place."
--Trenton Times

"Evenhanded and respectful....A good introduction to one of our greatest living writers."
--Houston Chronicle

Edition details

• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0385476485
• ISBN 13: 9780385476485
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 432