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Eudora Welty by Amanda Simonton

Eudora Welty is said to be one of the most important contemporary American writer's of the twentieth century. Although most known for her many short stories, she also wrote novels, folk tales, children's books and even a bibliography. She had a wide range of themes, and styles but found a way to make each one work. In the beginning stages of her writing Eudora was often dismissed by critics as a regionalist, a miniaturist, or an oversensitive "feminine" writer. But Eudora ignored these opinions and kept writing and by the late 1970's and 1980's her critics began to admire her work and began calling it original and excellent regional writing. Eudora was born on April 13, 1909 in Jackson, Mississippi. Growing up Mississippi had a great impact on Welty's works as most were set in the south and reflected the region's language and culture. Another big influence on her writing was one of her first jobs. After she graduated college, America was in the middle of the Great Depression and work was hard to find. She found a job with the W.P.A. (Works Progress Administration) interviewing and reporting. The job took her all over Mississippi showing her first hand how the Depression struck the lives of rural and small-town people. She was encouraged to capture their struggles and triumphs in stories. "[The experience] was the real germ of my wanting to become a real writer, a true writer..." -Eudora Welty (Overview of Eudora Welty 3) Her work is known for its subtle, lyrical narrative style and usually explores the intricacies of the interior life and the heroisms of average people. She used her close family as subject of her writing. Hearing her parents tell stories and gossip to each other gave her delight in both which were a vital part of traditional small-southern life. The women's movement during this time also had an impact on her writing. Although she had always distanced herself from the women's movement, her novels often illuminated the terrible state of affairs when men and women do not see each other clearly at all. And the feminist interest in the works of women writer brought her much attention to her fiction in the 1970's and 1980's. Welty's stories were largely concerned with the mysteries of inner life, She focused on the enigma of man, the meaning of life, and difficulties we have about our own feelings. She also emphasized the importance of solitude and independence. She wrote about the failure of love to show tolerance and generosity allows people to each other's flaws and change. Eudora celebrated the love of men and women, the joys of childhood, and the many dimensions of women. However, she also wrote folk tales that more like fairy tales where irony, humor, nonsense, and deep wisdom become a poetic unity with a pure unique style and a biography that made the best-seller lists with sales exceeding 100,000 copies. Eudora Welty was a very talented writer. She had an original and beautiful way of writing all different kinds of texts. She was a role model for the women fighting to be equal in America and showed that women too could be admired and successful. She showed how the people of America could overcome very difficult times, such as the great depression, and still be happy and full of love. Eudora was very important to twentieth century America literature and will always be remembered as a great American writer.

Bloom, Harold. __Eudora Welty__. New York: Chelsea House, 1986.

The book __Eudora Wetly__ edited by Harold Bloom explores into Eudora's life and style as a writer. It explains the connection between her life and stories and tells about the symbols in her writing. It also has a very useful chronology I can use for my trade card and points in my essay. I would recommend they add pictures to the reading more interesting. I would recommend this to other students because it contains a lot of good information and I learned a great deal about my Author from using it.

Bourgan, Suzanne. "Eudora Welty." __Encyclopedia of World Biography__. 1998. Gale Research. 22 May 2008 .

The article "Eudora Welty" edited by Suzanne M, Bourgoin is a biographical essay on Eudora Welty's life and writing. It contains numerous facts about each of her works and comments on how and why she wrote each one. It was very helpful to me in my research of Wetly. I found out many facts about her life and why she wrote many of her works. I would recommend this to other students doing a report on Eudora Welty because it is compacted with very useful information.

"Overview of Eudora Welty." __Gale Group__. 2003. Student Research Center. 22 May 2008 .

The Article "Overview of Eudora Welty" is a complete overview of Welty's works and career. The essay describes her life and how her works fit into it. It is very detailed but not too long and contains many useful facts comments from critics. I found a lot of information on why she wrote and it helped me a lot with my paper. I would recommend this article to other students because it essay to read and very helpful.

Wilson, Kathlen. "Eudora Welty." __Short Stories for Students__. Volume 2. 1997.

Short Stories for students contains many short stories and information on the authors. It criticizes and goes into detail about a specific short story. Before the story there is a short Biography on the author containing a lot of useful information. I learned about my Author life, experiences and awards. I plan on using this for my trade card.