During her 91 years, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Eudora Welty lived in Jackson and witnessed close to a century of change in her hometown and state. In this presentation, biographer Dr. Carolyn J. Brown explains how Eudora Welty’s personal life and writing career were affected by major historical events of the past century, such as the Depression, World War II and the Civil Rights movement. If equipment is available, photographs collected from the Mississippi Department of Archives, the Eudora Welty House and Visitors Center and personal photo albums from Welty’s family can be shown which illustrate major events in the writer’s life in Mississippi — growing up in Jackson, attending college at the “W,” working for the Works Project Administration, teaching at Millsaps College and writing and gardening in her home on Pinehurst Place in Jackson, where she resided for more than 75 years. Author Eudora Welty actually lived quite a daring life, and this presentation shows and explains how we can learn much about Mississippi and recent history by examining the life of one of our most celebrated writers.
