THE SPECTATOR. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1926. VOLUME XIX, NUMBER 9. Mississippi State College for Women student newspaper with Eudora Welty prose contribution titled "I" FOR IRIS - IRMA, IMOGENE.

Unnumbered four pages (apparently missing a center sheet of pages 3-4; i.e. only pages 1-2 and 5-6 are present). Approximate dimensions: H 56.5cm x L 40.75cm. Now folded into fourths; usual newspaper stock with mild toning and soiling as well as strong creases, several short tears at edges mostly affecting margins only, some abrasion and small paper loss along horizontal center-fold, chipping along top edges with shallow loss at top corners. Six column text with student news, advertisements for local merchants, etc. Fourth column of rear page (i.e. page 6) features "I" FOR IRIS - IRMA, IMOGENE credited at its conclusion to "E. Welty." The prose contribution is comprised of six paragraphs totaling approximately three-fifths (33cm) of the column's text length and is cited as #G10 (page 409) in Noel Polk's EUDORA WELTY; A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF HER WORK. Unfortunately this copy lacks the aforementioned center sheet (i.e. pages 3-4) for, according to Noel Polk, page 4 also has an untitled Welty poem (see Polk #G11). Merely 16 years old upon moving to the Columbus, Mississippi and enrolling at Mississippi State College for Women in 1925, Eudora Welty (April 13, 1909-July 23, 2001) had already published drawings and prose in several hometown Jackson, Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee publications as well as the national periodical ST. NICHOLAS MAGAZINE. Welty only attended MSCW or "The W" (now known as Mississippi University for Women - MUW) for her freshman and sophomore years before transferring to the University of Wisconsin at Madison from which she graduated with a B.A. in 1929. Welty is one of only a few major American authors with a significant record of published juvenilia and, although the material obviously reflects some youthful frivolity, it does offer delightful insight to Welty's humor and literary development. Albeit an incomplete issue of THE SPECTATOR, this copy is still an intriguing Welty item and quite scarce as "The W" had a limited enrollment of several hundred mostly in-state students and thus associated contemporary collegiate ephemera is exceptionally difficult to find. Description copyright David Hallinan, Bookseller.