Eudora Welty

(Eudora Welty) (April 13, 1909-July 23, 2001)

  The lady pictured above may not look familiar to you but maybe her name sounds familiar for some reason you can't quite put your finger on or perhaps you know.

  Ms. Welty was a famous writer from Jackson, Mississippi. She was born and raised  there and described her upbringing as being very sheltered. Eudora attended Mississippi State College for women for two years.  She also attended college in Wisconsin and New York.  She is considered by some to be one of the best American writers. Many awards and honorary degrees were bestowed upon her. Among the most notable were the Pulizter Prize for fiction in 1973 for a novel titled  "The Optimist's Daughter" (Random House 1972) and the Gold Medal for Fiction of the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1972. You can read her biography, and learn more about her writing and awards at one of these links; Eudora Welty Newsletter Life and Biblio  , Eudora Welty on the Internet or The Mississippi Writers Page. 

  There is one more thing that she is well known for and the reason why her name might sound familiar to you. It really all happened because of a story she wrote in 1941 called "Why I Live At The Post Office". A man named Steve Dorner read that story and it stuck with him. Later on when he was at the University of Illinois in 1988 during the early days of the internet he developed an e-mail program. When he was trying to think of a name for the program the story came back to him and he named the program Eudora. Ms. Welty was said to have been flattered. You can read that story here: Why I Live At The Post Office. To learn more about the e-mail program Eudora try this link, Eudora Background Documents. Eudora Welty passed away on July 23, 2001at the age of 92. She left a legacy of great American writing. 

Activities:

  Ask if anyone is familiar with Eudora Welty and her writing. Read the short bio and have the group visit the links. Print out a short bio to hand out to the group. 

  Read the story "Why I Live At The Post Office" have a discussion group about it. There are issues among the family members in this story which may be helpful in promoting discussion. 

Have a discussion about e-mail and mail and the importance of both things. Talk with the group about what form of communication they use most often. 

Intergenerational groups might want to discuss differences in the ways they communicate and how that impacts them. 

Purchase the book; A Curtain of Green and Other Stories that contains the story "Why I Live At The Post Office" (In association with Amazon.com)