This is truly fabulous. It is possibly the most inspirational book about writing that I have ever had the pleasure of reading. I simply cannot think of another book or essay that delves into the heart of being a writer with such loving detail.

It is not your typical "how to" book. Nevertheless, it provides you with endless insights into becoming a writer. It teaches you how to listen, what to observe, and what constitutes a concise episode for a story. And there is so much more.

In this book, Welty takes us back to her earliest memories. She even goes further back, recounting two prior generations of her family before she was born, to explain how she views the world and how that has influenced her writing. She speaks of both her unique circumstances and the generalizations about life that she has made through observation and contemplation. Her comments evoke a society and era, a domestic life, and her own personal life, making you savor each page of this short but powerful book.

One of the things that really sticks with me is how she said she learned that everything is "a scene." A conversation is a scene. The stories conveyed by the town gossip are scenes. Sitting on her father's lap is a scene. Scenes are where her books and short stories begin. These don't have to be harsh conflicts, but they are events with starts and ends, and with consequences thereafter. That is such a wonderful way of describing what can motivate storytelling.

In another section, she describes her maturation as an observer and writer. She says, "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 either of these is a single, entire human being, who will never be confined in any frame."

Welty, like all great writers, was a deep and relentless reader. She describes the impact that reading had on her. She talks about the physical presence of words - seeing them on a page, feeling their heft. She also shares the moment when her father told her at about age 6 that books are written by people. She had thought they were part of the natural world, like a stream or beehive.

Growing up in the early part of the 20th century in Jackson, Mississippi, she had a dual life. On the one hand, she was in a part of America far removed from the rapidly accelerating pace of modern life. She recounts being able to stand on the roof of a 10-story building at about age 20 or 22 and still easily see where Jackson's developed area ended in a swamp that would later be paved over, and to see in the near distance a river that "was still a river" at that time. Her parents each grew up in rural circumstances, her mom isolated in West Virginia, and her dad on a farm in Ohio. So, this was not a cosmopolitan family.

And yet, Jackson was the state capitol, and her father moved there as a young lawyer and became an executive at an insurance company that became highly successful and influential. There were many books in her house, even when the family was starting out with little money, including those in a cabinet that she said was called "The Library." Her mother read to her, recited poetry to her, and allowed her to read to her heart's content. And Jackson had its cosmopolitan side. Her father took them to see the traveling shows - including opera and famous lecturers - who came to Jackson on their way to longer gigs in New Orleans. Eudora was hardly a bumpkin. But yet, she knew what it was like to churn butter, grab hens' eggs or pick berries, or get a pie from the springhouse where it was being kept cold.

The book meanders, roughly chronologically to the point of her first novel in her late 20s. It is broken into three themes: listening, seeing, and finding her voice as a writer. The listening section is about her early youth and the solidity she felt with a reliable, always upbeat father (though who she said always prepared for the worst), but balanced by a nervous and protective mother (who always was in favor of taking the chance for something better). The seeing section is mostly a review of visits to the homesteads of her parents' families, though weeklong drives at 25 mph on dirt roads, and later by train. She tells of their roots in Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio, and how that influenced her parents' beliefs and habits. Also, she tells of the sadness her mother felt being removed by hundreds of miles from her own widowed mother for all of her adult life. The final section, "finding my voice," is about her as a young woman at college in Mississippi and then Univ. Wisconsin, then working in Jackson and taking forays to New York City to try to sell short stories. In this section, she explains how she came to the dawning realization that writing would be her passion and her career, and how she pursued it with stories that, at first, were a bit too obvious, and then finally found her stride.

We are in a woke era, so it is only fair to recognize that Welty's world was one of white privilege in the segregated South. She went to Jefferson Davis Elementary, for goodness sakes, and an all-white, all-girls college in Mississippi before transferring to Univ. Wisconsin. She acknowledges those aspects of her world a little, but not much. For example, she says that college brought her in contact for the first time with girls from around the state, but only white ones. I guess the best that can be said for her about it is that she was born in 1909 in Mississippi, and had enough awareness to realize that others didn't have her opportunities. But there is nothing in this book to suggest that she or her parents sought to do anything about it, except, in her case, to go with the flow when things changed in the 1960s. And that is commendable, of course.

However, I would not call the lack of wokeness a flaw in this book. The book stands for what it is, a representation of how a brilliant, sensitive person became a memorable writer, one focused on the life of daily details, the inner workings of normal people, not on sweeping drama and national justice. And that is okay because she opened our eyes to our inner selves.

The author's memory, her recollections and experiences; and by using listening, learning to see and finding a voice as tools, this writer has been forged.

Memory is a powerful force that shapes our identities and perspectives. For this author, her memories are a rich source of inspiration and material. Through listening attentively to the world around her, she has been able to capture the subtleties of human interaction and the beauty of nature.

Learning to see has also been crucial in her development as a writer. By training her eyes to notice the details that others might overlook, she has been able to bring her stories to life with vivid descriptions and imagery.

Finally, finding a voice has been the key to her success. By expressing herself authentically and fearlessly, she has been able to connect with readers on a deep and emotional level. “Todo lo que se rememora se une y vive” - everything that is remembered comes together and lives on in her writing.

This summer, I was given the wonderful opportunity to witness Mary Chapin Carpenter's concert.

It was truly one of those magical post-Covid-lockdown performances. The audience and the performers were all overjoyed to see each other again.

I was completely enchanted by the entire experience. And when Carpenter incidentally mentioned Eudora Welty's One Writer's Beginnings as one of her absolute favorite books, it really sparked my interest to seek out the book and give it a thorough read.

I'm extremely glad that I did. One Writer's Beginnings is an equally enchanting experience. It tells the story of Welty's childhood in Jackson, Mississippi, during the early years of the 20th century.

Welty vividly描绘s that place and time, the dedicated nurturing she received from both her parents, and the enduring love for stories that ultimately led to her career as a writer.

Despite being such a short memoir, Welty provides a remarkable level of specificity. For instance, there is an anecdote about her father waking her up when she was just a toddler to witness Halley's Comet pass in 1910. It was this very scene that inspired Carpenter's song \\"Halley Came to Jackson.\\"

In any event, One Writer's Beginnings would be a captivating read for writers, history enthusiasts, or anyone who simply shares that profound love for a great story that makes writers like Welty and Carpenter shine brightly.

As you have seen, I am a writer who emerged from a sheltered life.

A sheltered life is often misconstrued as being uneventful or lacking in excitement. However, what many fail to realize is that a sheltered life can, in fact, be a daring life as well.

For all serious daring commences from within. It is not about the external circumstances or the adventures one undertakes. Instead, it is about having the courage to break free from the limitations of our comfort zones, to explore our deepest fears and desires, and to take risks that may lead to personal growth and transformation.

In my case, growing up in a sheltered environment gave me the opportunity to observe the world around me with a sense of detachment and objectivity. It allowed me to develop a rich inner life and a vivid imagination, which I have since channeled into my writing.

So, while a sheltered life may not seem like the most obvious path to a daring and fulfilling existence, it can, in fact, be a springboard for great things. All it takes is the courage to look within and to take that first step towards the unknown. ❤️

To be fair: I hadn't read any of Eudora Welty's fiction before reading this book, her autobiography.

That being said, I still don't think many of the stories told in this book would be of interest to casual readers.

Some of the details given are interesting in how they present/discuss an early-20th century lifestyle. For instance, the descriptions of the social events, the clothing, and the daily routines provide a vivid picture of that era.

Welty does present a few interesting ideas as well. For example, she states, "one secret is liable to be revealed in the place of another that is harder to tell, and the substitute secret when nakedly exposed is often the more appalling." This thought-provoking statement makes the reader stop and consider the nature of secrets and how they can impact our lives.

But aside from that, most of the book is just dull. The autobiography's themes are discussed at length in the last few pages of the book, but are very unclear and frequently discarded before then. As a result, the reader is often unsure what to be looking for.

Apparently, the main theme was "confluence," but it was not developed or explored in a way that made it easily understandable or engaging.

It often seems as if Welty includes many stories and details not because they pertain to the themes of the book, or because they necessarily influenced her as a writer, but just because she knew them. This lack of focus and direction makes the book feel disjointed and uninteresting at times.

Overall, while there are some interesting aspects to this autobiography, it is not a must-read for most readers.

"We were all wrapped by the long ride into some cocoon of our own," says Eudora Welty, vividly describing a long family trip in a car.

In general, this is precisely how I feel when listening to Eudora Welty's voice. I have painstakingly collected all of her recorded works because hearing her speak evokes in me an altered meditative state of pure bliss. But when I heard her on this three-CD recording of her live reading of a memoir with contemplations on writing (Listening, Learning to See, and Finding a Voice) to an audience, it was truly beyond heavenly.

I have always had a fantasy of spending personal time with Ms. Welty. I would love to simply hang out with her, listening intently to anything she would say, whether it was professionally as a mentor writer or personally. This CD set is as close as I can possibly get to that梦寐以求的 experience. You get to hear her goof and apologize, you sense her warmth, and you are completely captivated by her mesmerizing voice and unique accent.

There are only a very few writers whose voice, when reading their own work, elevates it to a level of transcendent joy and meditation for the listener. She is one of them. This is exactly that.

Eudora Welty, a renowned master of the American short story, is a literary figure who needs no introduction. Her writing vividly chronicles life in Mississippi both before and during the Depression era. This memoir, which was originally delivered as three lectures at Harvard University in April 1983, serves as a valuable repository of our knowledge about Welty's upbringing and early adulthood. Significantly, it also reveals her literary influences.

Welty delves into her family history and the diverse inspirations that led to the creation of her unique characters. Through her family and extensive travels, she gained a profound understanding of human life, which allowed her to imagine and bring to life her distinctive characters. Despite coming from a relatively "sheltered" background, she was clearly receptive to everything happening around her. She witnessed Mississippi firsthand by traveling to capture the real-life scenes of the Depression through photography. Additionally, she traveled widely, visiting New York and attending school in Wisconsin, and learned valuable lessons from these different environments.

She emerges as an ambitious young woman who makes the most of every opportunity presented to her. She learned about life as it unfolded before her, without following a grand plan for success. Instead, she started with the details. After benefiting from her father's pre-Depression success in the life insurance industry in Jackson, Mississippi, she chose to eschew the field of business in favor of a writer's life, which was rich in observational experiences but often financially meager.

In a new edition released in late 2020, Simon and Schuster has repackaged this work to reach a wider audience of contemporary readers. Literary researchers will find this book particularly interesting, as it offers insights into Welty's creative process and the experiences that shaped her as a writer. Moreover, a broader audience of writers and book enthusiasts, who may have been introduced to Welty's craftsmanship through her short stories or photographs, can satisfy their curiosity by learning about the specific experiences that contributed to the formation of this quintessentially American writer. Borrowing Welty's imagery, the words seem to flow seamlessly from her experiences to the reader, creating a "confluence" of a great writer's mind with the minds of her readers. In this way, readers can expand their understanding of the wide world and the depth of humanity.

I've had the pleasure of enjoying some of Eudora Welty's short stories. I even had the opportunity to visit her house in Jackson, Mississippi. There, I not only explored the place but also indulged in delicious cheese straws on the porch. Additionally, I was extremely fortunate to meet her charming and gracious niece. It is abundantly clear that Miss Welty is a highly beloved Southern writer, with her stories being widely enjoyed. Her house has now been transformed into a wonderful museum, which is truly well worth a visit.

I vividly remember listening to Miss Welty herself reading this book as a series of three lectures at Harvard University in 1983. It was an incredibly rich and delightful experience to hear her talk about her life and writing in her lovely Southern voice. Moreover, listening to her reading captivating excerpts from her work was truly a treat. Her talent simply shone through.

I have a particular fondness for the quote at the end: '...I am a writer who came of a sheltered life. A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within.' This quote beautifully encapsulates her perspective on life and writing, and it serves as a source of inspiration for many.

I received a free advance digital review copy from Scribner in exchange for my honest review.

One Writer's Beginnings consists of the text of three lectures that Eudora Welty delivered at Harvard University in 1983. With remarkable poignancy, she describes moments from her daily life. She reflects on her earliest childhood memories, her college years, and her first professional job in the Works Progress Administration. She also shares insights about her parents that she gained after their deaths.

She details how the clocks striking the hour and the barometer marking the weather on the walls of her childhood home, along with her parents' attention to these instruments, instilled in her a sense of time and atmosphere crucial for storytelling and good writing. She credits her parents with nurturing her love of books and reading and emphasizes the importance of listening "for stories... for the unspoken as well as the spoken." She describes her memory as the "treasure most dearly regarded by [her]" in both her life and writing. She views memory as a "living thing," with much to be learned from the distance of reflection as well as the immediacy of experience and observation. She explains how it forms the foundation of her writing when combined with and used to inform her imagination.

This edition of One Writer's Beginnings is significantly enhanced by Natasha Trethewey's Introduction. Written as one Mississippi writer reflecting on the life and career of another, Trethewey evokes the universal messages in Welty's work. It is firmly "rooted in a particular time and place" centered on her own experiences, yet it invites the reader to consider the "story [we tell] to ourselves about our lives, the arc of them - what gives meaning and purpose, and connects us to others." As Trethewey observes, Welty's words are worth reading and re-reading and stand as "an invitation to... meet ourselves again in our memories."

A Southern writer, Eudora Welty, grew up in Jackson, MS in the early part of the Twentieth Century.

This book is a series of three lectures she gave at Harvard. The names of the three lectures almost say it all: 1. Listening, 2. Learning to See, and 3. Finding a Voice. She gave these lectures in 1983 and so it is that the world I lived in as a small child in the South does touch gently at times the world Eudora writes about. Before technology, things changed slowly.

On memory, she said, "But it was not until I began to write, as I seriously did only when I reached my twenties, that I found the world out there revealing, because (as with my father now), memory had become attached to seeing, love had added itself to discovery, and because I recognized in my own continuing longing to keep going, the need I carried inside me to know - the apprehension, first, and then the passion, to connect myself to it." She also said, "I was always my own teacher."

On her mother, she said, "She suffered perhaps more than an ordinary number of blows in her long life. We, her children, like our father before us, had to learn the lesson that we would never be able to console her for any of them; especially could we not console her for what happened to ourselves."

There is much food for thought here. How do writers learn to write? I try to imagine the best of them taking a writing course and I cannot imagine it. English, learning English, and how it works, yes, but writing, no. Eudora would say that a writer needs to listen and then see before they find a voice. Therefore, when we teach our children to listen and see and remember, we are teaching them to write. Hang the adverbs!

Born in Jackson, Missouri in 1909, this autobiography-memoir was, in 1983, given as part of Harvard’s William E. Massey Sr. Lecture series. It was presented in three separate talks to students eager to learn from her years of writing.

Reading this brought me back in time. It reminded me of the stories my paternal grandparents shared with me, about their childhood and even those of their parents and grandparents. I learned to read young, taught by my older brother when he first learned in school. But it was my grandfather who truly instilled a love of reading in me. I remember sitting beside him as he typed out his poetry and helped him choose his words. The click of the typewriter keys, the small desk, and the old typewriter on it are still vivid in my mind. I understood even then that language was crucial in writing.

“Children, like animals,” Welty writes, “use all their senses to discover the world.” In the Introduction, Natasha Trethewey says that each time she reads One Writer’s Beginnings, she meets herself in Welty’s words. Even though this is my first time reading it, I share that feeling. I could relate to the joy of that first box camera, even if ours were different makes and from different years. The stories of her father giving life lessons that become a part of you are touching.

Her stories on reading and being read to are charming and wonderful. Her memories of visiting the local library are priceless. Her thoughts on writing, shaped by her love of reading and being read to, are a delight to read. She also shares her memories of summer trips to visit her grandparents in West Virginia and Ohio, which brought back many memories for me.

“Ever since I was first read to, then started reading to myself, there has never been a line read that I didn’t hear. As my eyes follow the sentence, a voice is saying it silently to me. It isn’t my mother’s voice, or the voice of any person I can identify, certainly not my own. It is human, but inward, and it is inwardly that I listen to it. It is to me the voice of the story or the poem itself. The cadence, whatever it is that asks you to believe, the feeling that resides in the printed word, reaches me through the reader-voice. I have supposed, but never found out, that this is the case with all readers — to read as listeners — and with all writers, to write as listeners . . . The sound of what falls on the page begins the process of testing it for truth, for me…When I write and the sound of it comes back to my ears, then I act to make my changes. I have always trusted this voice.”

This book is a gem for readers and writers alike. Published on 20 Oct 2020. Many thanks for the ARC provided by Scribner.

The craft of writing through description is truly an art form.

It allows the writer to bring a scene, a character, or an emotion to life in the reader's mind.

Take, for example, a woman who is so patient. She has the ability to wait calmly, without getting frustrated or impatient.

Her patience is like a still pool of water, deep and quiet.

And yet, within that stillness, there is a brilliant mind at work.

She observes everything around her with a keen eye, noticing the smallest details.

Her intelligence shines through in the way she thinks and the way she expresses herself.

She is a master of description, able to paint a vivid picture with her words.

Whether she is writing about a beautiful sunset or a complex emotion, she does it with grace and precision.

Her writing is a joy to read, transporting the reader to another world and making them feel as if they are a part of it.