Eudora Welty's One Writer's Beginnings

       My overall impression of Eudora Welty, through her memoir One Writer's Beginnings, is that she enjoyed a life that has become increasingly rare in the generations since. A little over 50 years separate her and me timewise, and I feel lucky to have been at the latter stages of a history without the Internet. Although I very much appreciate what technology has contributed to society in my lifetime (including the ability to take university courses such as this one on-line), I truly feel that people who grew up before this had a deeper love and appreciation of books.

       I can especially relate to Eudora's reminiscence of the reference volumes that her parents provided. In chapter one, "Listening" she relates the story of moving into a new house; "there was room to celebrate it with the new 1925 edition of the Brittanica..." (Welty 6). My parent's bought me a set of the "World Book" encyclopedia in the mid 1960s. I was an early and avid reader, and I considered this set of books a real treasure. Over the next several years, I made it a habit to browse completely through these volumes alphabetically. I didn't read every single entry, but I did go from "A to Z" through them, and I feel that this was a huge boost to my early education.

       Another thing that Ms. Welty and I shared was a mother that loved music, and who sang aloud often. "My mother always sang to her children. Her voice came out just a little bit in the minor key" (11). I don't know how well Welty understood "major" vs. "minor"- (most children's songs are not in a minor key), but what I think she means is that her mother's voice sounded a little sad. This wasn't the case with my mom. She usually sounded quite happy as she sang. Of my two parents, it was definitely my mother that I've inherited my musical abilities from. Almost everyone from her side of the family was musical in some way, either playing an instrument or singing.

       It was in church where a lot of this music came forth, and that brings me to my last strong association with Eudora Welty- the Bible. She makes the very astute observation "How many of us were blessed... in not having gone deprived of the King James version of the Bible. Its cadence entered into our ears....the evidence, or the ghost of it, lingers in all our books" (33-4). This makes a lot of sense to me, even though I am not a Christian. The biblical stories have influenced many great writers, of course, and given us titles such as East of Eden or Song of Solomon, but even for the non-professonal writing majority of us who have been raised by Christian parents, the Bible has been a huge part of our early exposure to literature.

Welty, Eudora. One Writer's Beginnings. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1984. Print.