One Writer’s Beginnings (1984). Content and Description

In this late book of autobiographical reflections (which is divided into three parts, titled, respectively, “Listening,” “Learning to See,” and “Finding a Voice”), Welty recalls the lives of her parents, their influence on her own development, her growth as a writer, and her artistic ideals, aspirations, and practices.

First delivered as a series of lectures at Harvard University in April 1983, this book includes a number of photographs of Welty’s ancestors and family, of her childhood neighborhood and home, of places she and her family visited, and of Welty herself at various stages of her life. Even more important than the actual photographs, however, are the verbal pictures Welty sketches of her supportive and loving parents, of her mother’s (and her own) obsession with books, of her growing awareness of her physical surroundings and of other people, and of her early efforts in literature and photography.

The overall picture that emerges is of a sensitive and generous young woman whose inquisitiveness and self-respect were nurtured by both parents in different ways—a woman whose gentle detachment, combined with a genuine and humane interest in others, allowed her to see clearly and capture sharply (both on film and in fiction) the subtle shadings of the people and places she observed.

Welty begins by describing her practical-minded, inventive, but kind-natured father, who always looked to the future and tried to be prepared for whatever it might hold. Her mother was in love with literature (she once rescued a prize set of Dickens from a burning house), and young Welty’s home was filled with books and with a love of reading and learning. At one point Welty in fact remarks, “I live in gratitude to my parents for initiating me—and as early as I begged for it, without keeping me waiting—into knowledge of the word, into reading and spelling, by way of the alphabet” (847).

Some of her most vivid memories involve specific books as well as the general process of reading, and it is clear that her early enthusiasm for words and for all manner of writing helped shaped the kind of author she later became. Yet, books were not the only influence she embraced; she also loved listening to stories, whether told by her parents or related by neighbors. One woman, in particular, would accompany the Welty family on Sunday drives, and Welty recalls that “my mother sat in the back with her friend, and I’m told that as a small child I would ask to sit in the middle, and say as we started off, ‘Now talk’” (852).

From the habit of a lifetime of listening closely—a habit that began when she was a youngster—Welty developed into a story writer whose works are full of the convincing sounds of human voices. She read widely, but she also kept her ears open, and both practices had a major influence on her later fiction. As she notes in one important passage:

My instinct—the dramatic instinct—was to lead me, eventually, on the right track for a storyteller: the scene was full of hints, pointers, suggestions, and promises of things to find out and know about human beings. I had to grow up and learn to listen for the unspoken as well as the spoken—and to know a truth, I also had to recognize a lie. (854)

Just as important as the influence of books and voices on Welty’s fiction, however, was the impact of an increasingly observant and practiced eye. Her skills at precise observation were honed by her experiences as a traveling journalist/photographer in the 1930s for the Mississippi office of the national Works Progress Administration (WPA), which had been formed to help fight the depression by putting people to work on useful projects. “Traveling over the whole of Mississippi, writing news stories for county papers, taking pictures,” Welty writes, “I saw my home state at close hand, really for the first time” (928). Her work as a photographer for the WPA helped teach her to observe closely and capture essences in precise moments of time—talents obviously relevant to her growing interest in the writing of fiction. One of her comments about photography, for instance, seems obviously relevant to her writing as well:

A good snapshot stopped a moment from running away. Photography taught me that to be able to capture transience, by being ready to click the shutter at the crucial moment, was the greatest need I had. Making pictures of people in all sorts of situations, I learned that every feeling waits upon its gesture; and I had to be prepared to recognize this moment when I saw it. These were things a story writer needed to know. (928)

One Writer’s Beginnings embodies the very values it describes: It is full of vivid pictures and of memorable voices, and it is typical of Welty’s modesty that so much of the book is given over, in generous tribute, to others, including teachers and friends, relatives and acquaintances, and especially her beloved parents. All these persons, but especially her parents, helped shape the woman and writer she became. It seems fitting that her last major book, written late in life, should take her (and her readers) back to her childhood and youth, where everything began.

For Discussion or Writing:
1. How is Welty’s autobiography similar to and/or different from Booker T. Washington’s Up from Slavery, particularly in terms of setting(s), family circumstances, career aspirations, obstacles confronted, and achievements obtained? How do matters of race, class, and gender impinge upon both narratives? What values do Washington and Welty seem to have shared despite their obvious differences?

2. Compare and contrast One Writer’s Beginnings with Gertrude Stein’s The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. How are the two works similar and/or different in tone, techniques, style, and narrative methods? What social, artistic, and ethical values seem to be implied by each work? Which protagonist (Stein or Welty) appeals to you more? Explain your reaction.

3. How does Welty’s account of her life in One Writer’s Beginnings differ from or seem comparable to the accounts offered by the Native American writer Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (Zitkala-Sa) in such works as “Impressions of an Indian Girlhood,” “The School Days of an Indian Girl,” and “An Indian Teacher among Indians”? Discuss the roles of such factors as family backgrounds, parental influences, and educational experiences in these writings by Welty and Bonnin.

Works Cited and Additional Resources:
Bloom, Harold, ed. Eudora Welty: Updated Edition. New York: Chelsea House, 2007.
Champion, Laurie, ed. The Critical Response to Eudora Welty’s Fiction. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1994.

“Eudora Welty Newsletter.” Georgia State University. Available online. URL: http://www2.gsu. edu/~wwwewn/index.htm. Accessed March 11, 2007.
Ford, Richard, and Michael Kreyling. “Chronology.” In Stories, Essays and Memoir, by Eudora Welty, 951-999. New York: Library of America, 1998.

Gretlund, Jan Nordby. Eudora Welty’s Aesthetics of Place. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1994. Johnston, Carol Ann. Eudora Welty: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne, 1997.

“Mississippi Writer’s Page: Eudora Welty (1909-2001).” The Internet Guide to Mississippi Writers. Available online. URL: http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/ english/ms-writers/dir/welty_eudora/. Accessed March 11, 2007.

Pingatore, Diana R. A Reader’s Guide to the Short Stories of Eudora Welty. New York: G. K. Hall, 1996.
Prenshaw, Peggy Whitman, ed. Eudora Welty: Thirteen Essays. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 1983.