o Welty was born in Jackson, Mississippi
o Neither of her parents came from the Deep South
o She grew up with brothers Edward and Walter in a close-knit, protective, extended family
o In 1927 she attended the Mississippi College for Women, graduated from the University of Wisconsin and then studied advertising at Columbia University for a year
o Welty returns home in 1931 after her father's death to work as a photographer for the Works Progress Administration
o Her pictures show the rural poor and convey the want and worry of the Great Depression
o On a larger level, they show Welty's wide-ranging curiosity and open-handed empathy
o Neither of her parents came from the Deep South
o She grew up with brothers Edward and Walter in a close-knit, protective, extended family
o In 1927 she attended the Mississippi College for Women, graduated from the University of Wisconsin and then studied advertising at Columbia University for a year
o Welty returns home in 1931 after her father's death to work as a photographer for the Works Progress Administration
o Her pictures show the rural poor and convey the want and worry of the Great Depression
o On a larger level, they show Welty's wide-ranging curiosity and open-handed empathy
o These qualities would later mark her work as a writer, too
o Most of her subjects were African-Americans
o “While white people in a Deep South state like Mississippi were surrounded by blacks at the time... they were socially invisible”
o Stopped writing for 15 years after her first novel was published to care for her two bothers with severe arthritis and her mother who had had a stroke
o This could explain why she chose to incorporate Old Phoenix’s sick grandson into the plot
o She also was a 6-time winner of the O. Henry Award for Short Stories
o Other awards include: the National Medal for Literature, the American Book Award, and, in 1969, a Pulitzer Prize
o Due to her fiction, usually set in the rural South, she's known as the First Lady of Southern Literature
o Throughout her career as rural photographer who had seen racial discrimination take place among the South, Welty most likely chose an old, black woman as the main character since she was able to recognize the strength they have to overcome hardship such as racial inequality
o In 1983, Welty delivered the first annual Massey Lecture in the History of American Civilization at Harvard University These three lectures became her best-selling autobiography, One Writer's Beginnings. Despite this autobiography, Welty remained quiet on the subject of her own life and said she wanted “the work to exist as the thing that answers every question about its doing.”
o During the last few years of Welty’s life, after she had stopped writing, Welty remained energetic and cordial as ever and kept in touch with her friends and neighbors in Jackson, Mississippi
o She died on July 22, 2001, at the age of 92
o Most of her subjects were African-Americans
o “While white people in a Deep South state like Mississippi were surrounded by blacks at the time... they were socially invisible”
o Stopped writing for 15 years after her first novel was published to care for her two bothers with severe arthritis and her mother who had had a stroke
o This could explain why she chose to incorporate Old Phoenix’s sick grandson into the plot
o She also was a 6-time winner of the O. Henry Award for Short Stories
o Other awards include: the National Medal for Literature, the American Book Award, and, in 1969, a Pulitzer Prize
o Due to her fiction, usually set in the rural South, she's known as the First Lady of Southern Literature
o Throughout her career as rural photographer who had seen racial discrimination take place among the South, Welty most likely chose an old, black woman as the main character since she was able to recognize the strength they have to overcome hardship such as racial inequality
o In 1983, Welty delivered the first annual Massey Lecture in the History of American Civilization at Harvard University These three lectures became her best-selling autobiography, One Writer's Beginnings. Despite this autobiography, Welty remained quiet on the subject of her own life and said she wanted “the work to exist as the thing that answers every question about its doing.”
o During the last few years of Welty’s life, after she had stopped writing, Welty remained energetic and cordial as ever and kept in touch with her friends and neighbors in Jackson, Mississippi
o She died on July 22, 2001, at the age of 92