"Eudora" E-mail

Probably the most unique honor Miss Welty has received was when software engineer Steve Dorner named his e-mail program for her.

Today, over 10 million people worldwide often wonder who "Eudora" is because of Dorner's creative association in naming the application he invented.

Dorner explains that Welty's short story "Why I Live at the P.O." inspired his original slogan, 'Bringing the P.O. to Where You Live' "because instead of living at the post office, Eudora brings the post office to you. So I named the program in honor of Ms. Welty."

Dorner invented his e-mail program at University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne, where it was first made available to the Internet community in the spring of 1990. The product is now licensed to Qualcomm Corporation, a major sponsor of this site.

To learn more, read the following:

  • Introduction to "Electric Mail" from the Online Edition of the PBS Series "Life on the Internet"
  • Here's the full text transcript of the program PBS program "Electric Mail."
  • Here's an Interview with Steve Dorner (Enterprise Times)
  • Forthcoming here is Welty's short story, "Why I Live at the P.O." (to be reprinted with permission of Russell and Volkening, literary agents).

Download a copy of Eudora!

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Last updated: 6 December 1997
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