Rating: 
Summary: Eudora Welty
Review: Eudora Welty grew up in a time when the television seemed an impossibility and books were prized possessions, especially in the Welty family. School was strict, which meant tightly laced teachers who expected perfection and didn't mind using physical force to promote mistake free work. Between her parent's high expectations, the demands of her teachers and her insatiable hunger for books, Welty was destined to become a success.
In her book, One Writer's Beginnings, Welty uses anecdotes and childhood memories to explain not only the natural progression of events that lead her personally to become a writer, but also exactly what it takes to be a writer.
The book is split up into three distinct sections. The first if full of stories from her childhood. The second portion tells of her annual family expeditions from Mississippi to Virginia and finally to Ohio. These trips provided endless opportunities to practice her observational skills and collect scenes and memories that would later prove valuable in her writing. The third section comes closest to offering instructional writing advice.
If you are looking for a good read and an interesting autobiography, this book will meet your needs. Welty offers insights into the time period and uses language to make all of her characters seem attractive and important. I think that Welty intended this book to be an inspiration to aspiring writers though and, it is in that niche that it most serves its purpose.
Rating: 
Summary: The Queen of Southern Writing
Review: Eudora Welty is considered one the the greatest fiction writers of the 20th century. Being from Mississippi myself, I am embarrassed to admit that until about four years ago, I had never read any of her work. After reading 'The Golden Apples' and 'The Optimist's Daughter,' I realized what a treasure I'd missed. 'One Writer's Beginnings' belongs in that treasure chest as well.'One Writer's Beginnings' would probably be better appreciated by readers who have read at least a short story or two by the late Ms. Welty. (She passed away last year.) Her style and charm are obvious from the first page, but if this is the first contact a reader has had with Welty, he or she may not appreciate the book fully. First of all, I should speak to what the book is NOT: It is not a how-to-be-a-writer book. It will not teach you how to tighten up your stories, how to plot, how to sell your stories, or anything else of a practical nature in the writing business. It is not a strict autobiography, although parts of Welty's life are described in detail. It is not a book to breeze through, even though it comes in at slightly over 100 pages. What is the book? It is actually a series of three lectures delivered at Harvard University in 1983 when the writer was 74 years old. The three parts are titled as follows: I. Listening - As a child, Welty spent many hours watching and listening to the people around her in Jackson, Mississippi. She carefully absorbed their stories and how they told them. She began to listen to and fall in love with words. II. Learning to See - As she stepped outside of her home to visit relatives along with her parents, Welty makes some wonderful discoveries about her family in West Virginia and Ohio. Time is "a continuous thread of revelation." III. Finding a Voice - This lecture is the payoff, describing how Welty evolved as a writer and how her characters came to life. "The frame through which I viewed the world changed too, with time. Greater than scene, I came to see, is situation. Greater than situation is implication. Greater than all of these is a single, entire human being, who will never be confined in any frame." 'One Writer's Beginnings' is an amazing, brief look at the long life of a writer and what made her a writer. Like all of Welty's works, it is not a book to be read quickly, but savored.
Rating:
Summary: The Queen of Southern Writing
Review: Eudora Welty is considered one the the greatest fiction writers of the 20th century. Being from Mississippi myself, I am embarrassed to admit that until about four years ago, I had never read any of her work. After reading 'The Golden Apples' and 'The Optimist's Daughter,' I realized what a treasure I'd missed. 'One Writer's Beginnings' belongs in that treasure chest as well. 'One Writer's Beginnings' would probably be better appreciated by readers who have read at least a short story or two by the late Ms. Welty. (She passed away last year.) Her style and charm are obvious from the first page, but if this is the first contact a reader has had with Welty, he or she may not appreciate the book fully. First of all, I should speak to what the book is NOT: It is not a how-to-be-a-writer book. It will not teach you how to tighten up your stories, how to plot, how to sell your stories, or anything else of a practical nature in the writing business. It is not a strict autobiography, although parts of Welty's life are described in detail. It is not a book to breeze through, even though it comes in at slightly over 100 pages. What is the book? It is actually a series of three lectures delivered at Harvard University in 1983 when the writer was 74 years old. The three parts are titled as follows: I. Listening - As a child, Welty spent many hours watching and listening to the people around her in Jackson, Mississippi. She carefully absorbed their stories and how they told them. She began to listen to and fall in love with words. II. Learning to See - As she stepped outside of her home to visit relatives along with her parents, Welty makes some wonderful discoveries about her family in West Virginia and Ohio. Time is "a continuous thread of revelation." III. Finding a Voice - This lecture is the payoff, describing how Welty evolved as a writer and how her characters came to life. "The frame through which I viewed the world changed too, with time. Greater than scene, I came to see, is situation. Greater than situation is implication. Greater than all of these is a single, entire human being, who will never be confined in any frame." 'One Writer's Beginnings' is an amazing, brief look at the long life of a writer and what made her a writer. Like all of Welty's works, it is not a book to be read quickly, but savored.
Rating:
Summary: A Southern Jewel
Review: Eudora Welty's One Writer's Beginnings is an autobiographical book about Welty's life in the South.
The lifestyle of the South opened Welty's eyes to everything she writes in her books. This book is divided into three sections, Listening, Learning to See, and Finding a Voice. Each section uses descriptive writing to take the reader into the author's voice, thoughts, and heart. In Listening, she allows the reader to hear every sound in the exact way she hears them. In Learning to See, Welty opens the reader's eyes to a life of growing up in the South and everything that accompanies it. In Finding a Voice, the author tells of the search she endeavored to find her voice as a Sothern writer. This was an excellent book. Every word touched some part of my life, and I felt as if I could relate to Welty. I feel like I could listen to her voice for hours.
Rating:
Summary: The Art Of Writing
Review: Eudora Welty's One Writer's Beginnings is an excellently composed book about the writer's personal life, and her personal style of writing. Welty is a very eminent writer, whose many honors include the Pulitzer Prize, the American Book Award for fiction, and the Gold Medal for the Novel given for her entire work in fiction. Thus her book about her own personal development as a writer is extremely important, since it provides essential clues to her success. One Writer's Beginnings is mainly focused on Welty's life, commencing with her childhood, and how it had a significant effect on her writing. Mainly the book is composed of three main topics: listening, learning to see, and finding a voice. These topics explain Welty's personal development as a writer, and one should definitely read and consider each one of them. One Writer's Beginnins is an interesting book, containing potent intellectual and emotional qualities, and also educational themes.
One Writer's Beginnings' main themes are very elucidating, since they provide important clues to Welty's success as a writer. The book commences with Welty's early life and the description of her family. In this she starts her first main topic- "listening". She describes her interest in listening to others, and she learned to be an observer. As she states, "A conscious act grew out of this by the time I began to write stories: getting my distance... is the way I begin work." This enchantment of listening helped Welty develop a clear idea on how to compose stories, and how to describe different personalities. The next main topic is "learning to see", which describes her impressions of every place she visited. As Welty explains, every trip her family made helped her later to write her stories, since somewhere in the back of her head those stories were already composed and all she had to do is put them down on paper. Each trip changed Welty's life, making a sort of metamorphosis deep within her character, "They changed something in my life: each trip made its particular revelation." Finally the last main topic of her bibliography is "finding a voice". This part of the book is possibly the most important, since it contains information about the author's personal writing evolution. Here, one can learn about the character development and creation. All of these topics were colorfully described, and each had an essential piece of information which revealed Welty's development as a writer. Therefore, anyone who wishes to improve his writing abilities should read this book and learn more about these educational main themes in Welty's book.
Another powerful asset in One Writer's Beginnings is its intellectual qualities. The book is written in a simplistic way, and it retains high clarity. Even though the language is quite colorful, it is very easy to follow Welty's story. As for instance she writes, "When I did begin to write, the short story was a shape that had already formed itself and stood waiting in the back of my mind." The sentence is easy to read, and it still pertains important information about the author's writing years. Thus this positive quality gives this book a big plus, since it is much easier to learn new things from a book that is written in an understandable language.
The emotional qualities of the book provide a powerful effect on the reader's mind. Welty has an excellent writing style that is both poignant and interesting. She explains a number of emotional moments in her life, which touch the reader. As for instance, she describes the death of her older brother who died before she was born. Yet she still seems to be happy with her life, and all of her misfortunes seem to be just part of her life, and they do not change her love of life. Thus she is very optimistic, and this quality of the book makes it very interesting, since it teaches others not to despair but to enjoy our lives as they are. Also she describes her parent's infinite love for her. The book's emotional qualities help the reader feel closer to the writer, and this makes the book even more interesting.
One Writer's Beginnings is a resplendently composed book on Eudora Welty's life, which contains a simplicity of a parable, and educational themes of a novel. The book is mainly divided into three main pars, Listening, Learning To See, and Finding A Voice. Each of these main topics explain Welty's evolution as a writer, and provide important clues to her writing style. Everyone should definitely consider reading this book, and learning more about such an eminent writer as Eudora Welty. In the end, One Writer's Beginnings is an easy reading book, that can teach its readers many essential ideas and themes about writing. Thus everyone who has not read this book should consider reading this powerful work of literature.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Story Told
Review: I enjoyed reading this book. I just picked it up out of a pile, and I wasn't really looking forward to reading it because I actually never had heard of Eudora Welty. However, I am very glad to have read this book. It reminded me of my grandmother telling me of her life as a young person. Only Eudora explained her life in terms of what shaped her into becoming a writer. It's not like her journey of becoming a writer; it's more of a personal story of how it was just part of her, like destiny. I never heard of her before, but I have learned that she is a very famous author after reading this book.
I also enjoyed that as she reflects on her life, there is nothing sad, or depressing about it. It was a joyful, peaceful, educational, and supportive life for her. Her family was good to her, and she expresses her love for them in every word written about them. She is also very descriptive in this book, which I enjoyed as much as listening to a story told in person.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Book!
Review: I pick this book up and read it over and over again. It's WONDERFUL! Ms. Welty does a great job explaining her life growing up in Jackson, Mississippi in the first half of the 20th Century and how it influenced her writing. Her descriptions of her school prinicipal and the town librarian are priceless as are her descriptions of sunday school at the Methodist Church. Originally delivered as a part of the Massey Lectures on American Civilization at Harvard University, she did a wonderful job spinning these into a super little book. After reading the book I had to visit her home in Jackson and see Jefferson Davis School across the street.
Rating: 
Summary: Pshaw!!
Review: I'm not one to praise books because they are critically acclaimed by the New York Times and various other prestigious literary elite. My recent read was of one by Eudora Welty. The book in review is One Writer's Beginnings. This book is supposed to be a sort of guide to writing, or at least that's what I was told by my teacher and the impression I got when grabbing this book from the "Writer's Guide" shelf at the bookstore. I was greatly mislead. This book is an autobiography of the authors life while growing up moreso than it is a book on writing. Myself being a teenager I went into this book with a very strong disposition against it because personally, I don't find reading about an old woman's life very appealing. Not surprisingly, I was right. The book consists of three chapters each one addressing a theme of sorts dealing with her life and her so called writing strategies. Actually the book itself is composed of three lectures by Eudora Welty which she used at Harvard in the early 1980's. The first chapter is called "Listening" and it deals with Welty as a child growing up. She and her family resided in Mississippi in the early 1900's and she was the oldest of three siblings, and the only female. It is here that the reader will discover the happy childhood that she had. Welty describes her parents as loving and sacrificing all for her. You can see that her parents really did love her because of the all too numerous occasions Welty brings up. Her mother purchasing a piano for the family even though she could not afford it all because she wanted her family to have an instrument to play, or how her father purchased her a garish set of knowledge books, even though it set him back with payments. She describes that even at an early age she fell in love with books and read incessantly throughout her childhood. She also brings up that her family never lied to one another, unlike the rest of the families in her town, whom lied to each other constantly. This is where I get a feeling that Welty has a sort of condescending attitude. From what I made out, it seems as though she thinks she's so much more sophisticated and more intelligent than the people around her. Some people may take it as extreme confidence, but I stand with the high ego aspect. Another part I really didn't like was how she thought her family was the most perfect family ever. She claimed that they never lied to one another, which is a fallacy as everyone lies. She speaks of times at school when teachers would get enraged because of grammatical errors such as saying the phrase "might-could." As a child she was prone to hearing rampant gossip through the ladies of her town, in which helped ignite her desire for wanting to hear stories. The second chapter, entitled "Learning to See" deals with a lot of traveling and other tales of her family. Welty says she inherited her fathers compulsive nervousness in the form that she cannot stop writing once she has started. She accounts of her mother's love for the author/poet Charles Dickens. The reader is then introduced to an eccentric lawyer, a town legend of some degree. He cleared a fortuneteller from a murder charge by re-enacting an accidental shooting by jumping up and down on a bed. This is the only chapter from the book that I mildly enjoyed, mostly in part of the tale of the lawyer, and his unorthodox methods. The final chapter, "Finding a Voice" is her accounts of her writing life. This chapter minutely deals with writing, more specifically her thoughts on it, and not any type of guide. She states that the outside world was vital to her inner life, and that her imagination was key to her creativity. Here she also discusses her fundamentals of discovering her parents even long after they passed away. Welty also explains that somehow all of an authors characters are a part of the author, and that most of her characters she created were influenced by people she knew.
The book flowed well, but it didn't grab my attention whatsoever, and its not because I have ADD. It was based on the fact that its really only accounts of her family and her life growing up. I didn't want to read an autobiography, I wanted a book on bettering my writing. All in all, I would only recommend this book to the older folks because that's who it is geared towards. My final verdict is quite simple, "Pshaw!!"
Rating:
Summary: Autobiography, Welty Style
Review: I've been a fan of Eudora Welty since discovering her short stories as a teenager many, many years ago. I wrote her what is probably a typical teenager's fan letter, and she was kind enough to reply and answer some questions I had in detail. I have since read all of her work, and still consider it a disgrace that she never won the Nobel Prize--she deserved it. This little autobiography is a great read even for those unfamiliar with Miss Welty's work--it's that engaging. As with her fiction, she is particularly adept at providing the atmosphere in the South where she lived her life. By the time I finished reading of her childhood I felt like I had a true and realistic rendering of her family, told with the tenderness and dignity that marks all of her work. I've always found Welty's friendship with Katherine Ann Porter to be an interesting facet of her early career, since Porter assumed the role of mentor. Miss Porter was, and is, well known for her beauty and was a 'free spirit' when it came to lovers. Regardless of her other attributes, there is no doubt that Eudora was quite ugly to look at, and certainly led a very different personal lifestyle than did Miss Porter. I hope that one day a biographer will further detail their relationship. As an aside, I have a dual-tape recording set of Miss Welty reading some of her short stories. She had what must be one of the most pleasant and engaging reading voices I've ever heard. If the reader ever has a chance to purchase her on tape, buy it. I've long felt that Eudora Welty took on the title of the pre-eminent American female writer of the last century following the death of Willa Cather. This little jewel of a book will delight her old fans and possibly create some new ones. A great gift idea for anyone enjoying biographies.
Rating:
Summary: Soothing as a Southern Breeze
Review: This is not a "how to" book about the writing of literature, but a short autobiography of a famed writer's growing up years. Any instruction is inferred rather than offered directly in Eudora Welty's recollections of her childhood in Jackson, Mississippi.
The book has charm and a wonderful mood about it. It's like sitting in the parlor of an old southern mansion while your gentle and eloquent Aunt recalls fascinating times gone by. Perhaps Ms. Welty is one of the few literary authors who claims no childhood crutch to lean on. She had wonderful parents and relatives who nurtured her creativity and encouraged her dreams. It's a fine thing that she pays homage to them in this wonderful little book.
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