Eudora Welty

Welty lived her whole life in Jackson, Mississippi and became famous for her stories from the heart of the American South. Her early stories and essays were published in the New Yorker and other magazines. Welty's first book of collected stories, A Curtain of Green (1941), put her on the literary map. Her books include the novella The Robber Bridegroom (1942) and the novels Delta Wedding (1946) and The Ponder Heart (1954).

By the time she won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for her fiction novel The Optimist's Daughter, Welty had become a cherished grande dame of American letters. Her autobiographical book, One Writer's Beginnings was published in 1984.

Welty never married and lived nearly her entire life in the family home in which she grew up. The popular e-mail program Eudora was named for Welty by its creator, Steve Dorner... Welty was awarded the French Legion of Honor in 1996.

Birth: 13 April 1909

Birthplace: Jackson, Mississippi

Death: 23 July 2001