It's small wonder that the Library of America chose Eudora Welty as the first living (at that time) author published in this prestigious series. Welty was the kind of writer people routinely call "an American institution." But don't let the sweet white-haired-old-lady image fool you: Welty's work is anything but benign. For more than 50 years, Welty spoke with a fierce and uncompromising literary voice. Or, rather, voices: the stories collected in this volume feature a dizzying array of characters, each of whom seems to whisper directly into the reader's ear. From the toxic rage of "Where Is the Voice Coming From?" to the jazzy rhythms of "Powerhouse," these tales blaze with intensity and a comic energy that's both gentle and fierce. Even that bane of junior-high-school speech tournaments everywhere, "Why I Live at the P.O.," benefits from rereading; as far as this brand of down-home farce goes, Welty does it better than anyone. Bringing together the contents of Welty's four short-fiction collections, this Library of America volume also includes several essays as well as Welty's very fine 1984 memoir, "One Writer's Beginnings." In it she speaks of connections, continuities, the way both her fiction and her experiences emerged gradually into focus over time: ...suddenly a light is thrown back, as when your train makes a curve, showing that there has been a mountain of meaning rising behind you on the way you've come, is rising there still, proven now through retrospect. This volume is that light thrown back; the full import of Welty's enormously influential work is perhaps apparent only now, in this substantial and rewarding retrospective of her career. --Mary Park


From Library Journal
Congratuations to Welty on becoming the first living writer to be included among the Library of America's prestigious ranks. This sterling collection includes an amalgam of all her longer fiction, such as The Robber Bridegroom, The Ponder Heart, and The Optimist's Daughter, as well as her complete short fiction, plus a selection of essays and autobiographical writings.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, James Olney
...to call up into view, to praise, to love--taken in whatever order---are ultimately a single desire driving her work from the first published story ("Death of a Traveling Salesman") right through One Writer's Beginnings.


From Kirkus Reviews
The Library's first publication of the work of a living author efficiently showcases the universally praised fiction of southern regionalist whose early stories were championed by such notable contemporaries as Katherine Anne Porter and Robert Penn Warren. The Stories volume includes 41 pungent and resonant tales (counting as individual stories the seven chapters of Welty's 1949 masterpiece, The Golden Apples) that unforgettably display their creator's sure grasp of racy local idiom and color (``Why I Live at the P.O., ``Powerhouse''), compassionate scrutiny of social inequity and racist violence (the fable-like ``A Worn Path'' and the furious ``Where is the Voice Coming From?''), and mischievous inventive power (``Petrified Man,'' ``The Wide Net''). The companion edition, Complete Novels (ISBN 1-883011-54-X), conveniently gathers together works that, while generally less known than Welty's stories, often equal their structural concision and thematic clarity. Most deserving of a second look, perhaps, are the rueful country comedy The Ponder Heart (1954) and the best family-reunion novel ever written (and it's much more than that): 1970's Losing Battles. Welty, who's 90 and still lives in (her birthplace) Jackson, Mississippi, has understandably produced little new work in recent years. But her supple, funny, gently judging voice is heard again to stunning effect throughout this indispensable homage to one of our greatest writers. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Card catalog description
Stories, Essays, and Memoir presents Welty's collected short stories, an astonishing body of work that has made her one of the most respected writers of short fiction. A Curtain of Green and Other Stories (1941), her first book, includes many of her most popular stories, such as "A Worn Path," "Powerhouse," and the farcical "Why I Live at the P.O." The Wide Net and Other Stories (1943), in which historical figures such as Aaron Burr ("First Love") and John James Audubon ("A Still Moment") appear as characters, shows her evolving mastery as a regional chronicler. The Golden Apples (1949) is a series of interrelated stories about the inhabitants of the fictional town of Morgana, Mississippi. It was Welty's favorite among her books. The stories of The Bride of the Innisfallen and Other Stories (1955) are set both in the South and in Europe. Also included are two stories from the 1960s, "Where Is the Voice Coming From?", based on the shooting of Medgar Evers, and "The Demonstrators." A selection of nine literary and personal essays includes evocations of the Jackson of her youth that is essential to her work and cogent discussions of literary form.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Eudora Welty has long been hailed as one of the most talented writers of this century. Her short stories are powerfully evocative, structurally concise, and masterfully crafted. Some of her finest works have been gathered together in Welty: Stories, Essays, & Memoir. No fiction writer can be complete until he or she has experienced and studied Welty's work. In this collection of short stories, personal essays, and a memoir, readers can sample some of the best from Welty's astonishing body of work.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Stories, Essays, and Memoir presents Welty's collected short stories, an astonishing body of work that has made her one of the most respected writers of short fiction. A Curtain of Green and Other Stories (1941), her first book, includes many of her most popular stories, such as "A Worn Path," "Powerhouse," and the farcical "Why I Live at the P.O." The Wide Net and Other Stories (1943), in which historical figures such as Aaron Burr ("First Love") and John James Audubon ("A Still Moment") appear as characters, shows her evolving mastery as a regional chronicler. The Golden Apples (1949) is a series of interrelated stories about the inhabitants of the fictional town of Morgana, Mississippi. It was Welty's favorite among her books. The stories of The Bride of the Innisfallen and Other Stories (1955) are set both in the South and in Europe. Also included are two stories from the 1960s, "Where Is the Voice Coming From?", based on the shooting of Medgar Evers, and "The Demonstrators." A selection of nine literary and personal essays includes evocations of the Jackson of her youth that is essential to her work and cogent discussions of literary form.

SYNOPSIS

The first living writer ever to be included in the prestigious Library of America series, Eudora Welty (b.1909) is best known for her short stories, though she's published a number of novels in the Southern Gothic tradition, including The Robber Bridegroom (1942), Delta Wedding (1946), and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Optimist's Daughter (1972). Born in Jackson, Mississippi, and educated at the Mississippi State College for Women, the University of Wisconsin, and Columbia University, Welty writes from an often shockingly concrete sense of place, evoking a powerful sense of the South and its manners and prejudices in her fiction, both short and long. She is also the only writer -- to my knowledge, at least -- to have an email program named after her. If you've never read any Welty, begin with "Why I Live at the P.O."

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Congratuations to Welty on becoming the first living writer to be included among the Library of America's prestigious ranks. This sterling collection includes an amalgam of all her longer fiction, such as The Robber Bridegroom, The Ponder Heart, and The Optimist's Daughter, as well as her complete short fiction, plus a selection of essays and autobiographical writings.

James Olney

Welty's admirers have the opportunity [here] to watch with her as the body of her work gradually emerges. .. a richly varied yet single living entity, something always there, always coming into being but wholly perceptible only now. -- The New York Times Book Review

Kirkus Reviews

Efficiently showcases the universally praised fiction of the southern regionalist whose early stories were championed by such notable contemporaries as Katherine Anne Porter and Robert Penn Warren. The Stories volume includes 41 pungent and resonant tales (counting as individual stories the seven chapters of Welty's 1949 masterpiece, The Golden Apples) that unforgettably display their creator's sure grasp of racy local idiom and color (Why I Live at the P.O., Powerhouse), compassionate scrutiny of social inequity and racist violence (the fable-like A Worn Path and the furious Where Is the Voice Coming From?), and mischievous inventive power (Petrified Man, The Wide Net). The companion edition, Complete Novels, conveniently gathers together works that, while generally less known than Welty's stories, often equal their structural concision and thematic clarity. Most deserving of a second look, perhaps, are the rueful country comedy The Ponder Heart (1954) and the best family-reunion novel ever written (and it's much more than that): 1970's Losing Battles. Welty's supple, funny, gently judging voice is heard again to stunning effect throughout this indispensable homage to one of our greatest writers.