Now available as an audio CD, in Eudora Welty's own voice, or as a book.
Eudora Welty was born in 1909 in Jackson, Mississippi. In a "continuous thread of revelation" she sketches her autobiography and tells us how her family and her surroundings contributed to the shaping not only of her personality but of her writing. Homely and commonplace sights, sounds, and objects resonate with the emotions of recollection: the striking clocks, the Victrola, her orphaned father's coverless little book saved since boyhood, the tall mountains of the West Virginia back country that become a metaphor for her mother's sturdy independence, Eudora's earliest box camera that suspended a moment forever and taught her that every feeling awaits a gesture. She has recreated this vanished world with the same subtlety and insight that mark her fiction.
Even if Eudora Welty were not a major writer, her description of growing up in the South--of the interplay between black and white, between town and countryside, between dedicated schoolteachers and the public they taught--would he notable. That she is a splendid writer of fiction gives her own experience a family likeness to others in the generation of young Southerners that produced a literary renaissance. Until publication of this book, she had discouraged biographical investigations. It undoubtedly was not easy for this shy and reticent lady to undertake her own literary biography, to relive her own memories (painful as well as pleasant), to go through letters and photographs of her parents and grandparents. But we are in her debt, for the distillation of experience she offers us is a rare pleasure for her admirers, a treat to everyone who loves good writing and anyone who is interested in the seeds of creativity.
Eudora Welty was born in 1909 in Jackson, Mississippi. In a "continuous thread of revelation" she sketches her autobiography and tells us how her family and her surroundings contributed to the shaping not only of her personality but of her writing. Homely and commonplace sights, sounds, and objects resonate with the emotions of recollection: the striking clocks, the Victrola, her orphaned father's coverless little book saved since boyhood, the tall mountains of the West Virginia back country that become a metaphor for her mother's sturdy independence, Eudora's earliest box camera that suspended a moment forever and taught her that every feeling awaits a gesture. She has recreated this vanished world with the same subtlety and insight that mark her fiction.
Even if Eudora Welty were not a major writer, her description of growing up in the South--of the interplay between black and white, between town and countryside, between dedicated schoolteachers and the public they taught--would he notable. That she is a splendid writer of fiction gives her own experience a family likeness to others in the generation of young Southerners that produced a literary renaissance. Until publication of this book, she had discouraged biographical investigations. It undoubtedly was not easy for this shy and reticent lady to undertake her own literary biography, to relive her own memories (painful as well as pleasant), to go through letters and photographs of her parents and grandparents. But we are in her debt, for the distillation of experience she offers us is a rare pleasure for her admirers, a treat to everyone who loves good writing and anyone who is interested in the seeds of creativity.
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Used availability for Eudora Welty's One Writer's Beginnings
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Hardback Editions
November 2008 : Library Binding
| Title: One Writer's Beginnings Author(s): Eudora Welty ISBN: 1-4395-7132-5 / 978-1-4395-7132-3 Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
January 2002 : Hardback
| Title: One Writer's Beginnings Author(s): Eudora Welty Publisher: Book of the Month Club, New York Availability: Amazon More details... |
July 1998 : Library Binding
| Title: One Writer's Beginnings Author(s): Eudora Welty ISBN: 0-613-14031-1 / 978-0-613-14031-7 (USA edition) Publisher: San Val Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
December 1985 : Hardback
| Title: One Writer's Beginnings Author(s): Eudora Welty ISBN: 0-8161-3914-8 / 978-0-8161-3914-9 (USA edition) Publisher: G K Hall & Co Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
February 1984 : Hardback
| Title: One Writer's Beginnings Author(s): Eudora Welty ISBN: 0-674-63925-1 / 978-0-674-63925-6 (USA edition) Publisher: Harvard University Press Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
January 1983 : Hardback
| Title: One Writer's Beginnings Author(s): Eudora Welty Publisher: Harvard University Press Availability: Amazon More details... |
Paperback Editions
2003 : Paperback
| Title: One Writer's Beginnings Author(s): Eudora Welty Publisher: Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003 Availability: Amazon UK More details... |
2002 : Paperback
| Title: One Writer's Beginnings Author(s): Eudora Welty Publisher: Book-of-the-Month Club/Harvard University Press Availability: Amazon More details... |
2000 : Paperback
| Title: One Writer's Beginnings Author(s): Eudora Welty Publisher: Harvard University Press Availability: Amazon UK More details... |
July 1998 : Paperback
| Title: One Writer's Beginnings (The William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in the History of American Civilization) Author(s): Eudora Welty ISBN: 0-674-63927-8 / 978-0-674-63927-0 (USA edition) Publisher: Harvard University Press Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
January 1995 : Paperback
| Title: One Writer's Beginnings Author(s): Eudora Welty Publisher: Harvard University Press Availability: Amazon UK More details... |
October 1991 : Paperback
| Title: One Writer's Beginnings: Lectures in the History of American Civilization Author(s): Eudora Welty ISBN: 0-446-39328-2 / 978-0-446-39328-7 (USA edition) Publisher: Grand Central Publishing Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
June 1987 : Mass Market Paperback
| Title: One Writer's Beginnings Author(s): Eudora Welty ISBN: 0-446-32983-5 / 978-0-446-32983-5 (USA edition) Publisher: Warner Books Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
October 1986 : Paperback
| Title: One Writer's Beginnings Author(s): Eudora Welty ISBN: 0-446-34301-3 / 978-0-446-34301-5 (USA edition) Publisher: Time Warner Publishing M/M Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
September 1985 : Paperback
| Title: One Writer's Beginnings (The William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in the History of American Civilization) Author(s): Eudora Welty ISBN: 0-571-13554-4 / 978-0-571-13554-7 (UK edition) Publisher: Faber and Faber Availability: Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
January 1984 : Paperback
| Title: One Writer's Beginnings Author(s): Eudora Welty Publisher: Harvard U Press. Availability: Amazon More details... |
1983 : Paperback
| Title: One Writer's Beginnings Author(s): Eudora Welty Publisher: Warner Books Availability: Amazon More details... |
Audio Editions
December 2004 : Audio CD
| Title: One Writer's Beginnings (The William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in the History of American Civilization) Author(s): Eudora Welty ISBN: 0-674-01579-7 / 978-0-674-01579-1 (USA edition) Publisher: Harvard University Press Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
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