Eudora Welty 尤多拉·韦尔蒂

Eudora Welty

LIFE IS LIKE A POEM

?Eudora Alice Welty (April 13, 1909 –July 23, 2001) was an American author of short stories and novels about the American South.People always compare her with

Russian author Chekhov. Her novel, The Optimist's

Daughter , won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty was

awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among

numerous awards.She was the first living author to have her works published by the Library of America. Her

house in Jackson, Mississippi, is a National Historic

Landmark and open to the public as a museum. Wyatt C.

Hedrick designed the Welty's Tudor Revival style home, which is now known as the Eudora Welty House.

?Eudora Welty was born in Jackson, Mississippi on April 13, 1909, the daughter of Christian Webb Welty and

Mary Chestina (Andrews) Welty. She grew up with

younger brothers Edward Jefferson and Walter Andrews.

Eudora’s mother was a schoolteacher. Eudora soon developed a love of reading, reinforced by her mother who believed that "any room in our house, at any time in the day, was there to read in, or to be read to". Her

father, who worked as an insurance executive, was

intrigued by gadgets and machines and inspired in

Eudora a love of all things mechanical. She later would use technology for symbolism in her stories and would also become an avid photographer, like her father.

?Eudora Welty was a prolific writer who created stories in multiple genres. Throughout her writing are the recurring themes of the paradox of human relationships, the

importance of place (a recurring theme in most Southern writing), and the importance of mythological influences that help shape the theme.Welty's interest in the

conflicting relationships between individuals and their

communities, according to the writer herself, stems out of her natural abilities as an observer.And place is vitally important in arguably every story Welty has ever

written.Welty is noted for using mythology to connect her specific characters and locations to universal truths and themes,examples can be found within the short story "A Worn Path".

Short story collections

? A Worn Path, 1940

? A Curtain of Green, 1941

?The Wide Net and Other Stories, 1943

?Music from Spain, 1948

?The Golden Apples, 1949

?Selected Stories, 1954

?The Bride of the Innisfallen and Other Stories, 1955?Thirteen Stories, 1965

?The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty, 1980?Moon Lake and Other Stories, 1980

?Morgana: Two Stories from The Golden Apples, 1988

Novels

?The Robber Bridegroom 1942?Delta Wedding, 1946

?The Ponder Heart, 1954?The Shoe Bird 1964?Losing Battles, 1970

?The Optimist's Daughter, 1972

?Honors

1941 –O. Henry Award, second place, "A Worn Path"

1942 –O. Henry Award, first place, "The Wide Net"

1943 –O. Henry Award, first place, "Livvie is Back"

1954 –William Dean Howells medal for fiction, The Ponder Heart 1968 –O. Henry Award, first place, "The Demonstrators”

1973 –Pulitzer Prize, The Optimist's Daughter

1980 –Presidential Medal of Freedom

1981 –Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia

1983 –National Book Award for the first paperback edition of The Collected Works of Eudora Welty

?1983 –Invited by Harvard University to give the first annual Massey Lectures in the History of American Civilization, revised and published as One Writer's Beginnings

1986 –National Medal of Arts.

1991 –National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters

1991 –Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award The

Helmerich Award is presented annually by the Tulsa Library Trust.

1992 –Rea Award for the Short Story

1992 –PEN/Malamud Award for the Short Story

1993 –Charles Frankel Prize, National Endowment for the Humanities 1993 –Distinguished Alumni Award, American Association of State Colleges and Universities

1996 –French Légion d’Honneur

1998 –First living author to have her works published in the prestigious Library of America series.

?While Welty worked as a publicity agent for the Works Progress Administration, she took photographs of people from all economic and social classes in her spare time.

Collections of her photographs were published as One Time, One Place and Photographs . Her photography

was the basis for several of her short stories, including "Why I Live at the PO", which was inspired by a woman she photographed ironing in the back of a small post

office. Although focused on her writing, Welty continued to take photographs until the 1950s.