Eudora Welty Research Paper

Eudora Welty: First Lady of Southern Literature Eudora Welty was born in Jackson, Mississippi on April 13, 1909. She was the oldest of three children and the only girl of a very close-knit family. Her father, Christian Webb Welty, was an Ohio native who worked for an insurance company. Her mother, Mary Chestina Welty, had been a schoolteacher in West Virginia. Welty’s mother, being a schoolteacher, loved to read and influenced Welty to read at a young age. In her biography, Welty tells about her earliest memories of her parents reading to her and to each other at night. She was always surrounded by books and was always reading. Her love of reading led her to graduate high school and further her education, which most girls during this time
Location was of great importance in Welty’s stories. She believed that place was what made stories seem real and complete. One of Welty’s famous quotes is, “A place that ever was lived in is like a fire that never goes out.” Jackson was her home all of her life, and it was what she knew best. She incorporated this familiarity and intimacy so flawlessly into her work and it is this that draws the reader in. It is so apparent that heart is put into her writings. Although most of her stories are set in the deep south, most critics agree that her work is all-inclusive and not narrowed just to southern living, language, and customs (Michiko). She is able to detach from what she knows best and observe other aspects of the world. Neither of her parents were originally from the south, and this may have had an influence on her work in being more universal. Living in New York for a few years also broadened her horizons. She said it best when she said, “Through travel I first became aware of the outside world; it was through travel that I found my own introspective way into becoming a part of it.” With all of her experiences tied together piece by piece, story by story, Eudora Welty became a well-known, award winning writer