MDAH Announces the Opening of the Welty Family Letters:
April, 2022
In honor of Eudora Welty’s 113th birthday on April 13, a previously restricted series of Welty’s family papers is now open to the public. “The letters in this series begin with the courtship letters of my grandparents,” said Welty’s niece Mary Alice White. “Also included are personal papers of the family, Eudora’s correspondence with family members, and papers and letters from my father, uncles, and other family members. Because these letters were not technically the property of Eudora—they belong to the letter writer—I think Eudora wanted them sealed to respect the privacy of those still living.” The Eudora Welty Collection, Series 45: Welty Family Papers was restricted to the public, in accordance with Welty’s will, for twenty years after her death. “This rich gathering of family correspondence swells what was already a most remarkable resource,” said Welty scholar and affiliate professor at the College of Charleston Harriet Pollack. “In these new materials, we grow close to Welty’s parents; her siblings and their families; her grandmother and great grandmother and their children. Through their intimate and everyday interactions with one another, we also come to know so much more about the woman and the writer, Eudora Welty. Astonishingly, a very private woman has unpredictably made generations of personal history available to those touched by her art, inviting us to better understand and to more fully engage the elusive woman behind it.”
The Eudora Welty Collection was established in 1957, when the internationally acclaimed author donated a portion of her papers—manuscripts, photographs, and correspondence—to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. The entire Welty Collection consists of drafts, revised copies, and printer’s versions of Welty’s works, including stories, books, essays, reviews, lectures, speeches, and drama. The collection also contains incoming and outgoing correspondence of Welty, negatives and photographs taken by Welty and her father, and memorabilia. The Welty Collection, now one of the largest literary collections in the country, is used by scholars from around the world. To view a description of this collection click here. For help on how to research in the archives click here.
Anne Patchett as the 2021 Eudora Welty Lecturer
Posted On October 13, 2021
Sponsored by the Eudora Welty Foundation in partnership with the Folger Shakespeare Library, the annual Eudora Welty Lecture celebrates creative origins shared in the spirit of Welty’s treasured One Writer’s Beginnings.
In June 2021, Ann Patchett traveled from her home in Nashville, Tennessee to visit the home museum of Eudora Welty in Jackson, Mississippi. After touring the home and gardens in communion with Welty’s spirit, Patchett ended the tour in the living room where she delivered this lecture and conversation. Patchett is a former member of the Welty Foundation Advisory Board and was the 2013 Eudora Welty Visiting Lecturer in the Humanities at Millsaps College.
When you purchase your ticket ($15), you will create a Folger Shakespeare Library account to access this virtual event at your convenience through June 30, 2022. https://www.folger.edu/events/ann-patchett-eudora-welty-lecture
The lecture, which is entitled “The Nightstand,” will be included in a new book of essays by Patchett, These Precious Days, to be published by Harper Collins in November 2021. We also recommend reading Patchett’s Introduction to the 2019 Mariner reprint of The Collected Stories by Eudora Welty, also partially posted to her Parnassus Bookstore webpage: https://parnassusmusing.net/2019/03/12/notes-from-ann-collected-stories-eudora-welty/
2022 Eudora Welty Research Fellowship at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History
Posted On October 13, 2021
The Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) is now accepting applications for the 2022 Eudora Welty Research Fellowship. Offered in partnership with the Eudora Welty Foundation, this annual fellowship awards a $5,000 stipend to one graduate student to conduct research using the Eudora Welty Collection at MDAH for two weeks during the summer. The deadline is March 4, 2022.
This competitive fellowship may be used to cover travel, housing, and other expenses during the recipient’s two-week stay in Jackson, Mississippi, to conduct research in summer 2022.
Additional information, including the application form and a link to the Eudora Welty Collection description in our online catalog, is available here.