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: Excellent example of an outstanding author's trove of memory
Review: I read this book many years ago, having received it as a birthday gift from a friend who knew of my appreciation of and respect for this giant in southern writing. The book stays in my mind due to Eudora Welty's keen eye, ear and memory. Based upon lectures given at Columbia University (as I recall)the series of vignettes, simply and powerfully written, can serve as a wonderful stimulus to other writers, for mining one's own good yet often fleeting moments in memory, a practice very useful in writing fiction or in biographical/autobiographical writing. Recommended reading after at least one fiction work of hers, such as DELTA WEDDING or THE PONDER HEART.
Rating: 
Summary: Sad life.
Review: I was required to read "Thirteen Stories" by Eudora Welty so I decided to read this book too. Big mistake. I had read this before "Thirteen Stories" so I didn't know her writing style. Her life is mainly about herself and her family. Most of her family is obsessed with reading. There was also one "catastrophe" in which her mother's books were in a burning house so someone went in to save them. Also Eudora went to a very strange school. She loved reading and was excited when she got her library card. She used to take out many books every time she went. Her grandparents were strange too. They lived on top of a hill and had a farm and a barn. I'm not saying anything bad about farmers but these people could not be understood. Believe me...this is not a good book!
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: 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: Essential Welty Reading
Review: More than an autobiography, more than a journal of the writing process, Welty has written--has braided with words--a thematic disclosure of self-discovery that runs deep. At the beginning of the short book, I first became entranced by her description of growing up in the South in the early part of the 20th Century. I felt that I was in the same confident, storytelling hands of Burns (Cold Sassy Tree); Welty re-creates the sights, sounds, and smells of the age, making it familiar to me. But then she writes of her narrative development, how she started to write, what voice she sought to create, how she started to see her world and present it in her tales. It is in this writing that the book takes on a fascinating layer of depth. Welty writes of the life of narratives--those she read as a child and those she created--in bringing meaning to her world. She references her world with her work. Or is it the other way around? Still, while reading this book, I felt that I was overhearing the dialogue created between the author and her text. It provides a rare glimpse between artifact and artist. I would highly recommend this book as a companion reader to her fiction; she tells just enough of her origins that the rest will become evident in its discovery. And she is at the top of her craft as a storyteller.
Rating:
Summary: Our greatest writer's personal story
Review: This is an utterly charming memoir by our greatest living writer. Miss Welty is as much a master of the memoir as she is of the short story.
Rating: 
Summary: Moving autobiography..............
Review: This is Eudora Welty's story of growing up in early 20th century Mississippi. She shows the early influences on her writing by explaining how she learned to "listen" (her mother always read to her), how she learned to "see" (through hearing vivid storytelling and through observation) and how she learned to find her "voice". Honest, moving, and valuable to young aspiring writers and of interest to those who would like to learn more about the life of Eudora Welty.
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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