Eudora: A Writer's Life [Hardcover]

Ann Waldron (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 10, 1998

"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.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com 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 Publishers Weekly

In a disheartening kickoff to a chronicle of the writing career of the intensely private "first lady of the South," Waldron (Hodding Carter: The Reconstruction of a Racist) dwells on Eudora Welty's unattractive physical appearance. That established, Waldron records Welty's literary milestones from writing humor for school magazines and society columns for Southern newspapers to the publication of her early short stories and subsequent award-winning novels, such as Delta Wedding and The Optimist's Daughter. Episodes in Welty's difficult home lifeAthe illnesses and deaths of her father and two brothers, the often strained relationship with her motherAare briefly described with cool detachment. Waldron devotes a fair amount of space to Welty's sustaining friendships with authors Katherine Anne Porter, Elizabeth Bowen and William Faulkner, but she also openly regrets not being able to expose the unmarried Welty's romantic liaisons or her sexual orientation. She is sharpest when writing of Welty's hated rival, Carson McCullers, and in the book's personalized introduction. "I'd rather you didn't talk to her," was Welty's attitude toward Waldron's project, and this lack of access to the octogenarian, her friends or even her neighbors leaves the book rather soulless. Although peppered with quotes from Welty's archived papers and filled with carefully assembled dates and facts, the biography offers little insight into the emotional life of a writer with an extraordinary voice.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (November 10, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385476477
• ISBN-13: 978-0385476478
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,233,900 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Petrified Biographer, April 12, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Louisiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eudora: A Writer's Life (Hardcover)

This is a terrible, mean-spirited attack against our greatest living writer, attacking her looks, her private life, etc. Eudora Welty has said throughout her life that she didn't want a biography written about her. This woman obviously does not respect her or she would respect her wishes. And why do such a book at this late date, with Miss Welty about to turn 90?? The author coyly pretends to be an admirer and then makes endless lurid allusions to a lady who basically has devoted her whole life to cultivating her art. Our most gifted writer is dismissed as a homely, unwanted "fag hag." (Judging by the photo of the dust jacket, Miss Waldron is no Hedy Lamarr herself). What would Edna Earle say about such a woman!! Don't buy this garbage. Buy another copy of one of Miss Eudora's books instead. You'll love it and it won't upset your stomach. To think some poor trees had to be slaughtered for this trash!! By the way, Happy 90th Birthday to Miss Eudora Welty who will certainly survive such a infantile attack as this. And someday an HONORABLE biography about her no will doubt be written.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reviewed by Heather Grimshaw for Bookreporter.com, March 27, 2000

By 

Bookreporter.com - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eudora: A Writer's Life (Hardcover)

Interpretations of books may differ, but most readers agree that an author's lot in life is to unlock diaries, tell secrets, and share the intimate thoughts of their characters. But when it comes to sharing their lives, some authors are more willing to bare their pasts and share their inspiration than others. Eudora Welty did not embrace the notion of her life populating pages of a biography, yet Ann Waldron portrays the author in EUDORA: A Writer's Life in a way that will surely prompt a renewed interest in her works.

Waldron employs a stark style of writing that is at times dry, listing dates and events with little commentary, but her simplicity allows the richness of her content to shine. A book that promises to enthrall readers whose literary interests have led to Welty's novels, EUDORA: A Writer's Life will undoubtedly serve as a useful reference.

Those whose interest in Welty precedes her novels should be prepared for a sneak peek into the author's development of characters and the personal experiences that may have molded them in her mind. Using quotes from interviews and snippets from correspondence, Waldron is able to project Welty's voice in a way that allows readers to hear Welty as though she were in the same room. Writers will especially appreciate one quote from Welty, in which she explains the way she discovered one character's role in several short stories. "All I had to do was put two and two together, him and my little group, and I had him by the tail," she said.

While Waldron shares some of Welty's inner thoughts, as documented in letters and such, she does not presume to analyze the meaning behind Welty's stories or the motivation of her characters, a practice that Welty openly disparaged. In one chapter, Welty comments on letters she received from readers wanting to know whether a character's choice of an apple in "A Visit of Charity" is a reference to the Garden of Eden. Welty, whose impatience resonates in her quote said of the question, "The things some people teach! She was just eating that [an apple] the way you would a Hershey bar --- or anything else you'd saved for a reward after an ordeal. I used to visit the old ladies. They scared me. I couldn't wait to leave."

This quote and others help to draw a picture of Welty, often called "Eudo" by family and friends and loved unilaterally by colleagues, friends, family, and audiences around the world. She was not, however, a woman who enjoyed the social life of the times. Her looks are described by some as ugly, off-putting, and odd; but such descriptions are always followed by praise of her character, her zest for life, and her talent as a writer. Welty's looks may have prevented a slightly less creative girl from achieving similar heights, but she seemed to channel both the negative and the positives of her life into her work. She was able to transcend the superficiality of the times, which put a staggering amount of importance on looks, and is remembered by colleagues as a woman before her time.

The book, which spans 340 pages, also delves into the network of literary giants that Welty cultivated. From her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi to New York City and abroad Welty toured, spoke, and nurtured a growing base of loyal friends and fans. She was called approachable by students who attended her lectures and lovable by friends who shared intimate moments and memories with her. Well respected and revered by writers, editors, and publishers, Welty was a multifaceted woman who first tested creative waters as a photographer who was known to walk into less fortunate neighborhoods and take pictures of people from all walks of life.

Welty identified her dream to be a writer in the early 20s and her determination led her from the society pages of a daily Mississippi newspaper to becoming junior publicist for the Works Progress Administration; and, later, a novelist whose life is of interest to readers around the world.

After reading about her life, I find myself recalling characters that at one point or another find themselves in similar circumstances or places that Eudora experienced, and have already put her autobiography titled ONE WRITER'S BEGINNINGS on my literary wish list.

--- Reviewed by Heather Grimshaw

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rewarding glimpses into a remarkable life, July 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Eudora: A Writer's Life (Hardcover)

I spent most of the weekend immersed in this book--and becoming enchanted with Eudora Welty. Monday I was at the library getting several of her works. I wanted to start at the beginning, so I read her first short story--Death of a Traveling Salesman. It was as gripping and powerful as I had hoped. This biography is respectful and insightful. It provides you with a strong sense of a gentle, talented southern lady who was absolutely true to herself and the world in which she spent her life and nurtured her talents. I am looking forward to reading everything Eudora Welty wrote and getting to know her. And it all began with this biography.