Synopses & Reviews
"Ms. Marrs embraces Welty's own largely joyous take on her life even while probing its difficulties and disappointments." -- Wall Street Journal "Honored for both her literary output and her generous spirit, Eudora Welty was probably the best loved writer in America. To read this biography is to understand why."--Cleveland Plain Dealer Eudora Welty created some of the finest short fiction ever written. First published in the 1940s, her stories introduced a genuinely original voice, and launched a career that over the decades would include novels, novellas, reviews, essays, and a memoir,
One Writer's Beginnings. Before her death in 2001, Welty was bestowed nearly every literary award it is possible to get-the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, six O. Henry Awards, the National Medal of Literature, and the Medal of Freedom. To so many, she was not just a writer but an icon.
What may surprise some readers is that the Eudora Welty who emerges in this affectionate biography is not a sequestered spinster from Jackson, Mississippi, but an inveterate traveler and a shrewd observer of her times. Marrs makes use of the material she gleaned from her close friendship with Welty during her last two decades, including the letters to and from the two great loves of Welty's life, and with contemporaries including Katherine Ann Porter, E. M. Forster, and Elizabeth Bowen. The result is a complete and absorbing portrait of a woman and a writer passionately engaged with her world. "In Suzanne Marrs, Eudora Welty has a responsible and thorough biographer who looked back, with a smile to be sure, but with a steady understanding as well." -- Times Picayune Suzanne Marrs is the author of One Writer's Imagination: The Fiction of Eudora Welty and a recipient of the Phoenix Award for Distinguished Welty Scholarship. She is professor of English at Millsaps College and lives in Jackson, Mississippi.
Review
PRAISE FOR
EUDORA WELTY "Suzanne Marrs has written an admirable, engrossing and gently gripping biography fully worthy of its remarkable subject."--
Los Angeles Times Book Review "Ms. Marrs embraces Welty's own largely joyous take on her life even while probing its difficulties and disappointments."--The Wall Street Journal
Review
PRAISE FOR ONE WRITER'S IMAGINATION
"Suzanne Marrs knows more about Eudora Welty than anyone else, and here she serves up a generous portion of her knowledge. In Marrs's clear-eyed gaze,Welty only goes on growing as a woman, a writer, a human being; and what Marrs sees is convincing."
-REYNOLDS PRICE
Synopsis
Eudora Welty's created some of the finest short fiction ever written. First published in the 1940s, they introduced a genuinely original voice, and launched a career that over the decades would include novels, novellas, reviews, essays, culminating in a 1984 memoir,
One Writer's Beginnings, which remains one of her best-loved works. By the time of her death, Welty was bestowed nearly every literary award it is possible to get-the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, six O. Henry Awards, the National Medal of Literature, and the Medal of Freedom. To so many, she was not a writer but an icon.
The Welty who emerges in this authoritative and affectionate biography by Suzanne Marrs will surprise some readers. Here is an account not of a sequestered spinster from Jackson, Mississippi, but of an inveterate traveler and a shrewd observer of her times. Marrs was close to Welty during the last two decades of the writer's life and makes effective use of the material to which this accorded her access, including the letters to and from the two great loves of Welty's life. Marrs also quotes generously from Welty's other correspondence, particularly with contemporaries and admirers, including Katherine Anne Porter, E. M. Forster, and Elizabeth Bowen.
The result is a complete and involving portrait-of a writer of such classics as "Why I Live at the P.O.," "A Worn Path," and Losing Battles, and of a woman passionately engaged by the world to which she bequeathed such timeless treasures.
Synopsis
"Honored for both her literary output and her generous spirit, Eudora Welty was probably the best loved writer in America. To read this biography is to understand why."--
The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) Eudora Welty created some of the finest short fiction ever written. First published in the 1940s, her stories introduced a genuinely original voice, and by the time of her death in 2001 she had received nearly every literary award possible, including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. To many she was not just a writer but an icon.
The Eudora Welty who emerges in this affectionate biography is not the sequestered spinster she was once thought to be but an inveterate traveler and a shrewd observer of her times. Suzanne Marrs, who shared a close friendship with Welty in her later years, makes effective use of the material to which she was given access, including letters to and from the two great loves of Welty's life and correspondence with contemporaries such as Katherine Anne Porter, E. M. Forster, and Elizabeth Bowen. The result is a complete and absorbing portrait of a woman and a writer passionately engaged with her world. "Ms. Marrs embraces Welty's own largely joyous take on her life even while probing its difficulties and disappointments."--The Wall Street Journal "In Suzanne Marrs, Eudora Welty has a responsible and thorough biographer who looked back, with a smile to be sure, but with a steady understanding as well." -- The Times-Picayune (New Orleans) Suzanne Marrs is the author of One Writer's Imagination: The Fiction of Eudora Welty and a recipient of the Phoenix Award for Distinguished Welty Scholarship. She is professor of English at Millsaps College and lives in Jackson, Mississippi.
Synopsis
Eudora Welty's works are treasures of American literature. When her first short-story collection was published in 1941, it heralded the arrival of a genuinely original writer who over the decades wrote hugely popular novels, novellas, essays, and a memoir, One Writer's Beginnings, that became a national bestseller. By the end of her life, Welty (who died in 2001) had been given nearly every literary award there was and was all but shrouded in admiration.
In this definitive and authoritative account, Suzanne Marrs restores Welty's story to human proportions, tracing Welty's life from her roots in Jackson, Mississippi, to her rise to international stature. Making generous use of Welty's correspondence-particularly with contemporaries and admirers, including Katherine Anne Porter, E. M. Forster, and Elizabeth Bowen-Marrs has provided a fitting and fascinating tribute to one of the finest writers of the twentieth century.
About the Author
SUZANNE MARRS is the author of Eudora Welty: A Biography andandnbsp;One Writer's Imagination: The Fiction of Eudora Welty; the editor of Whatandnbsp;There Is to Say We Have Said: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and William Maxwell; and a recipient of the Phoenix Award for Distinguished Welty Scholarship. She is a professor of English at Millsaps College.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Shelter and Beyond 1909-1931
2. Self-Discovery 1931-1941
3. "Being Apart from What Matters" World War II and the Home Front, 1941-1945
4. "Love First and then Separateness" 1945-1951
5. Finding a Way Out 1951-1956
6. Losing Battles 1957-1966
7. Defending Against Time 1966-1973
8. "The Strong Present Tense" On and Off the Road 1974-1980
9. "Ceaselessly Into the Past" Self-Portraits 1980-1984
10. "The Lonesomeness and Hilarity of Survival" 1984-1991
11. "Old Age Hath Yet Her Honor and Her Toil" 1991-2001
Acknowledgments
Appendices
Notes
Bibliography
Permissions acknowledgments
Index