Faulkner was an early admirer of Eudora Welty's work. More recently Richard Ford, Reynolds Price and Anne Tyler have testified to her enriching influence. Born in 1909, in Jackson, Mississippi, Eudora Welty's awareness of the inheritance of the South is integral to her novels and short stories. Resonant, disciplined, they combine an appreciation of the atavistic traditionalism of rural Mississippi and oral culture, with a sophisticated vision of conflicting contemporary ideals and pressures. This book provides a critical portrait of the author, a Pulitzer Prize winner.