Eudora

When I say Eudora, most people likely think of the e-mail program called "Eudora". But I recently read a book by the program's namesake. I was required to read One Writer's Beginnings by Eudora Welty in my final English class in college. I wasn't too excited about the book before I started it, but I had skipped out on reading the book required the week before, and I had failed my quiz on it, and I couldn't afford any more bad grades. (I got an A in the class, by the way.) I remember so much of the literature assigned that semester. We read The Metamorphosis and The Lottery and George Orwell . Not all that we read was depressing. I loved the class so much I would say it was one of my top 10 favorite classes in college! But back to Ms. Welty. . . I was introducted to her in late fall of 1995, and didn't really want to read the book because it meant another book had to be purchased. (I decided to check it out of my home library.) Her writing is so vivid. I felt I was actually traveling down the road to Ohio with her and her family in their car. She spoke so highly of the series of books she had when she was a child, I looked them up on eBay to see what they looked like. I cried when her father died. She is an outstanding author, and while the re-read on this book wasn't *quite* as good as the first, it was only because it wasn't new to me.

I remember this book as such a lovely piece of writing, I asked when I entered Alabama recently if there was a museum for Eudora Welty. (My memory didn't serve me correctly. She was from Mississippi rather than Alabama.) Still the lady at the rest stop and I chatted for a minute about her, and when I asked if the rest stop had postcards, I came away with a huge stack. It was then I realized that if I could think of a writer just because I was entering the area of the country she lived in, it was certainly time for a re-read of this book.