I confess, I have not read any of Ms. Welty's stories. The only reason I'd even heard of this book was because some famous author listed it as required reading for all aspiring writers. Having read it, I'm not entirely sure why. Sure, it's a lovely painting of life in early 20th century Mississippi, but besides making the point of "good writers can come from any background" there isn't much to be gained in terms of writing advice. So while I may recommend it as a descriptive and nostalgic memoir, I would not include it in my personal list of a writer's essential texts. ( )

In One Writer's Beginnings, Eudora Welty examines the influences in her life that shaped her writing. I liked this different take on the autobiography. It is not a chronological account of Welty's life, but it is very interesting to see the cause-effect relationships between her life and her writing. In Welty's self-examination she not only looks at how the events in her life affected her journey to becoming a writer, but also her family. This is a great read for anyone who wishes to be a writer themseves or is even just interested by the journey of the written word and how it makes it from the mind to the page. Be ready to become close friends with Eudora Welty - an endearing character and person. ( )

The unassuming, delight-filled, unsparingly indulgent prose of Miss Eudora's fiction is surpassed in this expansion and revision of her Massey Lecture in the History of American Civilization, delivered at Harvard in 1983. For anyone unacquainted with Miss Eudora's literary output, I recommend starting with short fiction ("The Bride of the Innisfallen" is a good starter, followed by "Why I Live at the P.O."), moving on to her chef d'ouevre, the novel "The Ponder Heart"; this memoir, all 104pp of it, should come after one knows whether one is able to appreciate the particularities and glories of Miss Eudora's work. While I think she would appeal to any able-minded reader, I know from experience that her beautiful sentences sound like preciosity to some readers: eg, "Over a stronghold of a face, the blue hat of the lady in the raincoat was settled on like an Indian bonnet, or, rather, like an old hat, which it was." ("The Bride of the Innisfallen")

This, to me, is equalled in English by Nabokov's terse clarity, and by little else; but it has been cited to me several times as unendurably cutesy or simply overwritten. I so completely disagree that it's hard to credit the opinion-havers with a shred of taste; however, there are tastes, and there are tastes, so I move on from my digression.

"One Writer's Beginnings" is told in a narrative voice much like her fiction; it is constructed like the linear tale that a life is when it is reflected on at leisure; and there are so many things in her history, from 1909 and her birth until her last entry in the lecture, a trip by train to New York during the Great Depression as a WPA junior publicity agent, that clearly formed a consciousness of time and place and rightness of things that she uses to such telling effect in her stories. An anecdote early in the book of her parents' morning routine of whistling and humming back and forth up and down the stairs phrases from "The Merry Widow Waltz" illuminates for me the means by which this shy, never-married lady "got" the signals of relationship that are so necessary to the parties in happiness. Another moment, the discovery of two nickels preserved in a hidden box, teaches me that Miss Eudora never felt any unmixed emotion (I won't tell that story, it must be read to be understood) and that is why "The Ponder Heart" is such a landmark in Southern ficiton.

The death of Miss Eudora's beloved father in 1931 is simply too painful for her to go into; she elides the details and leaves us to infer her pain. It fits with her lifelong lack of interest in talking about herself, but it leaves the reader without an anchor in what had to be a turbulent passage in her life. I can't fault the lady for her reticence, but in this as in several other areas, it would have behooved Miss Eudora to have let others guide her in preparing these talks so as to answer more questions.

Well, and therein the rub: It was the last thing she ever wanted to do, answer questions, and it's also why she wrote such marvelous stories, to answer them all unasked.

Miss Eudora Welty, thank you for it all, and a safe journey into the future for your gifts to us who follow along behind you. ( )

i see that other readers really liked this one. i really like memoirs but she just seemed too cheerful. her childhood was wonderful. her parents were wonderful. i don't trust people like this. ( )

Thoroughly entertaining! Welty is a great storyteller. ( )