Important Dates in the Life of Eudora Welty

Formative Years
1909 April 13, Eudora Alice Welty born in Jackson, MS to Mary Chestina Andrews Welty and Christian Webb Welty

1925 Graduates from Central High School, Jackson

1925-27 Attends Mississippi State College for Women, Columbus

1927-29 Attends University of Wisconsin, Madison, B.A. degree with a major in English

1930-31 Studies advertising at Columbia Graduate School of Business, New York

1931 Father's death; returns to Jackson. Begins to work part-time for local radio station and to take freelance jobs as newspaper correspondent, publicist.

1933-36 Works as publicity agent for Works Progress Administration in Mississippi

Early Career
1936 First published short story, "Death of a Traveling Salesman" in Manuscript; photograph exhibit in one-woman show in New York City.

1937 Publishes "A Piece of News" and "A Memory" in the Southern Review

1940 Begins association with Diarmuid Russell as literary agent

1941 A Curtain of Green, with introduction by Katherine Anne Porter; O. Henry Award, second prize for "A Worn Path"

1942 The Robber Bridegroom; O Henry first prize for "The Wide Net"; awarded Guggeneim Fellowship

1943 The Wide Net and Other Stories; O. Henry Award, first prize for "Livvie Is Back."

1944 American Academy of Arts and Letters award of $1000; works for six months on staff of New York Times Book Review; uses pseudonym of Michael Ravenna when reviewing war books.

1946 Delta Wedding; in November, begins five month stay in San Francisco

1947 Gives lecture, "The Reading and Writing of Short Stories," at writers' conference, University of Washington, Seattle; August-November in San Francisco.

1949 The Golden Apples: Guggenheim Fellowship; travels to Europe.

1951 March to July in England; visits Elizabeth Bowen in Ireland.

1952 Election to National Institute of Arts and Letters

1954 The Ponder Heart and Selected Stories (Modern Library edition); July-October, Europe; gives lecture, "Place in Fiction," at Cambridge University

1955 The Bride of the Innisfallen; mother's eye surgery in March; receives William Dean Howells Medal

1956 Attends Broadway opening of Chodorov-Fields production of The Ponder Heart in February; show runs until late June.

1958-61 Honorary Consultant, Library of Congress, illnesses of mother and brother, Walter, who dies in January 1959

1964 The Shoe Bird, a book for children

1966 Death of mother in January; unexpected death of brother Edward a few days later; O. Henry first prize for "The Demonstrators."

Later Career
1969 "The Optimist's Daughter," 15 March, in The New Yorker

1970 Losing Battles; awarded the Edward McDowell Medal.

1971 One Time, One Place: Mississippi in the Depression, A Snapshot Album, introduction by Welty; named to American Academy of Arts and Letters.

1972 The Optimist's Daughter; Gold Medal for the Novel, National Institute of Arts and Letters; appointed to the National Council of the Arts.

1973 Pulitzer Prize for The Optimist's Daughter; Diarmuid Russell dies.

1978 The Eye of the Story: Selected Essays and Reviews

1980 The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty

1981 National Medal of Literature and Medal of Freedom awards

1984 One Writer's Beginnings; Modern Language Association Commonwealth Award.

1986 Jackson Public Library named in honor of Eudora Welty; National Medal of Arts.

1987 Named Chevalier de L'orde d'Arts et Lettres (France)

1989 Photographs; portrait of Welty added to National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution.

1990 "Eudora" email made available on the Internet

1991 The Norton Book of Friendship, ed. Eudora Welty and Ronald A. Sharp; National Book Foundation Medal; Helmerich Distinquished Author Award; Cleanth Brooks Medal (Southern Letters); Eudora Welty Society organized.

1992 Awarded the Frankel Prize by the National Endowment for the Humanities

1993 Receives PEN/Malamud Award (excellence in the short story); honorary doctorate, University of Dijon (France).

1994 A Writer's Eye: Collected Book Reviews, ed. Pearl Amelia McHaney

1995 Eudora Welty Writers' Center established by Mississippi legislature on site of Welty's childhood home, 741 N. Congress St. in Jackson

1996 Inducted into France's Legin of Honor

1997 Eudora Welty on the Internet

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Last updated: 6 December 1997
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