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Title: One Writer's Beginnings by Eudora Welty ISBN: 0-674-63927-8 Publisher: Belknap Pr Pub. Date: July, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.24 (17 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A Southern Jewel
Comment: Eudora Welty's One Writer's Beginnings is an autobiographical book about Welty's life in the South.
The lifestyle of the South opened Welty's eyes to everything she writes in her books. This book is divided into three sections, Listening, Learning to See, and Finding a Voice. Each section uses descriptive writing to take the reader into the author's voice, thoughts, and heart. In Listening, she allows the reader to hear every sound in the exact way she hears them. In Learning to See, Welty opens the reader's eyes to a life of growing up in the South and everything that accompanies it. In Finding a Voice, the author tells of the search she endeavored to find her voice as a Sothern writer.
This was an excellent book. Every word touched some part of my life, and I felt as if I could relate to Welty. I feel like I could listen to her voice for hours.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Queen of Southern Writing
Comment: Eudora Welty is considered one the the greatest fiction writers of the 20th century. Being from Mississippi myself, I am embarrassed to admit that until about four years ago, I had never read any of her work. After reading 'The Golden Apples' and 'The Optimist's Daughter,' I realized what a treasure I'd missed. 'One Writer's Beginnings' belongs in that treasure chest as well.
'One Writer's Beginnings' would probably be better appreciated by readers who have read at least a short story or two by the late Ms. Welty. (She passed away last year.) Her style and charm are obvious from the first page, but if this is the first contact a reader has had with Welty, he or she may not appreciate the book fully.
First of all, I should speak to what the book is NOT: It is not a how-to-be-a-writer book. It will not teach you how to tighten up your stories, how to plot, how to sell your stories, or anything else of a practical nature in the writing business. It is not a strict autobiography, although parts of Welty's life are described in detail. It is not a book to breeze through, even though it comes in at slightly over 100 pages.
What is the book? It is actually a series of three lectures delivered at Harvard University in 1983 when the writer was 74 years old. The three parts are titled as follows:
I. Listening - As a child, Welty spent many hours watching and listening to the people around her in Jackson, Mississippi. She carefully absorbed their stories and how they told them. She began to listen to and fall in love with words.
II. Learning to See - As she stepped outside of her home to visit relatives along with her parents, Welty makes some wonderful discoveries about her family in West Virginia and Ohio. Time is "a continuous thread of revelation."
III. Finding a Voice - This lecture is the payoff, describing how Welty evolved as a writer and how her characters came to life. "The frame through which I viewed the world changed too, with time. Greater than scene, I came to see, is situation. Greater than situation is implication. Greater than all of these is a single, entire human being, who will never be confined in any frame."
'One Writer's Beginnings' is an amazing, brief look at the long life of a writer and what made her a writer. Like all of Welty's works, it is not a book to be read quickly, but savored.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Art Of Writing
Comment: Eudora Welty's One Writer's Beginnings is an excellently composed book about the writer's personal life, and her personal style of writing. Welty is a very eminent writer, whose many honors include the Pulitzer Prize, the American Book Award for fiction, and the Gold Medal for the Novel given for her entire work in fiction. Thus her book about her own personal development as a writer is extremely important, since it provides essential clues to her success. One Writer's Beginnings is mainly focused on Welty's life, commencing with her childhood, and how it had a significant effect on her writing. Mainly the book is composed of three main topics: listening, learning to see, and finding a voice. These topics explain Welty's personal development as a writer, and one should definitely read and consider each one of them. One Writer's Beginnins is an interesting book, containing potent intellectual and emotional qualities, and also educational themes.
One Writer's Beginnings' main themes are very elucidating, since they provide important clues to Welty's success as a writer. The book commences with Welty's early life and the description of her family. In this she starts her first main topic- "listening". She describes her interest in listening to others, and she learned to be an observer. As she states, "A conscious act grew out of this by the time I began to write stories: getting my distance... is the way I begin work." This enchantment of listening helped Welty develop a clear idea on how to compose stories, and how to describe different personalities. The next main topic is "learning to see", which describes her impressions of every place she visited. As Welty explains, every trip her family made helped her later to write her stories, since somewhere in the back of her head those stories were already composed and all she had to do is put them down on paper. Each trip changed Welty's life, making a sort of metamorphosis deep within her character, "They changed something in my life: each trip made its particular revelation." Finally the last main topic of her bibliography is "finding a voice". This part of the book is possibly the most important, since it contains information about the author's personal writing evolution. Here, one can learn about the character development and creation. All of these topics were colorfully described, and each had an essential piece of information which revealed Welty's development as a writer. Therefore, anyone who wishes to improve his writing abilities should read this book and learn more about these educational main themes in Welty's book.
Another powerful asset in One Writer's Beginnings is its intellectual qualities. The book is written in a simplistic way, and it retains high clarity. Even though the language is quite colorful, it is very easy to follow Welty's story. As for instance she writes, "When I did begin to write, the short story was a shape that had already formed itself and stood waiting in the back of my mind." The sentence is easy to read, and it still pertains important information about the author's writing years. Thus this positive quality gives this book a big plus, since it is much easier to learn new things from a book that is written in an understandable language.
The emotional qualities of the book provide a powerful effect on the reader's mind. Welty has an excellent writing style that is both poignant and interesting. She explains a number of emotional moments in her life, which touch the reader. As for instance, she describes the death of her older brother who died before she was born. Yet she still seems to be happy with her life, and all of her misfortunes seem to be just part of her life, and they do not change her love of life. Thus she is very optimistic, and this quality of the book makes it very interesting, since it teaches others not to despair but to enjoy our lives as they are. Also she describes her parent's infinite love for her. The book's emotional qualities help the reader feel closer to the writer, and this makes the book even more interesting.
One Writer's Beginnings is a resplendently composed book on Eudora Welty's life, which contains a simplicity of a parable, and educational themes of a novel. The book is mainly divided into three main pars, Listening, Learning To See, and Finding A Voice. Each of these main topics explain Welty's evolution as a writer, and provide important clues to her writing style. Everyone should definitely consider reading this book, and learning more about such an eminent writer as Eudora Welty. In the end, One Writer's Beginnings is an easy reading book, that can teach its readers many essential ideas and themes about writing. Thus everyone who has not read this book should consider reading this powerful work of literature.
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Title: The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty ISBN: 0156189216 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: February, 1982 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: On Writing by Eudora Welty ISBN: 0679642706 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 24 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty ISBN: 067972883X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 11 August, 1990 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: The Golden Apples by Eudora Welty ISBN: 015636090X Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: November, 1988 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Robber Bridegroom by Eudora Welty ISBN: 0156768070 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: November, 1978 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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