Eudora Welty
Pulitzer Prize Winner
Women and Adversity: Eudora Welty
Pulitzer Prize Winner
Eudora Welty would be 108 years old today, April 13, 2017. Born in 1909 in Jackson MS, Ms. Welty earned prominence as a short story writer and novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 for “The Optimist’s Daughter,” the story of Laurel, who takes care of her father, Judge McKelva, in his final days, and of the judge’s uncaring second wife, Fay.
Ms. Welty got her bachelor’s degree from University of Wisconsin and did graduate work at Columbia University School of Business. She worked at a radio station, wrote society columns and was a photographer/publicist for Works Progress Administration. She was on staff of the New York Times Book Review in 1944 and traveled to Europe in 1949-50.
Her photography was well received, but she is more widely recognized for her written works, especially her short stories. “A Curtain of Green,” published in 1941, is a collection of several of them. She writes about blacks in the South, about family relationships and human emotion. Her concentration on detail and ability to recreate scenes are some of her outstanding characteristics. “Death of a Traveling Salesman” and “Why I Live at the P.O.” are her most popular stories.
She never married and died in 2001 at the age of 92.
More information about Eudora Welty:
mwp.olemiss.edu//dir/welty_eudora
www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/marchapril/feature/the-quiet-greatness-eudora-welty
