One of the books I picked up this summer at the book sales was "One Writer's Beginnings" by Eudora Welty. And what a treasure this book is. It's more of an autobiography than a book about writing. And yet, the two are completely intertwined.
The book is broken down into three parts: Listening, Learning to See, and Finding a Voice.
Ms. Welty allows us to hear and see her family and her Mississippi. She fills you with sounds and sights until they're all around you and inside of you, then she ties all that beauty together into the final section about finding her voice. Here's a few quotes:
"Characters take on life sometimes by luck, but I suspect it is when you can write most entirely out of yourself, inside the skin, heart, mind, and soul of a person who is not yourself, that a character becomes in his own right another human being on the page."
"Of course any writer is in part all of his characters. How otherwise would they be known to him, occur to him, become what they are?"
"It is our inward journey that leads us through time--forward or back, seldom in a straight line, most often spiraling. Each of us is moving, changing, with respect to others. As we discover, we remember, remembering, we discover; and most intensely do we experience this when our separate journeys converge. Our living experience at those meeting points is one of the charged dramatic fields of fiction."
"As you have seen, 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."
If you ever find this book anywhere in your book travels, pick it up, and enjoy the stroll through the mind of a brilliant writer who dares to share her process and her journey through life with you, the reader.
10 comments:
Sandra, I'm going to search for this book. Last week I was about to write a crude response to the jerk who claimed that as writers we peak at fifty--or was it forty--but refrained. Here, though, in Welty's words, is what the response should be:
"As we discover, we remember, remembering, we discover..."
It's experience and memory and understanding that enable a writer to create characters that breathe on the page.
Get it, Junior?
Exactly, Anita. And this book was published in 1983 when Welty was 74!
I read this a number of years ago and remember it fondly. I should reread it. It's pretty short.
Yes, it's only 104 pages, Charles, but filled with wonderful writing and insights into her writing process.
I have to confess, I've never read any of Welty's novels, though I must have come across some of her short stories. I want to now, though.
I've not read her novels either, Manuel. There were several at the book sale, but my bag was full and I though, well next time. They were gone when I went back the next month.
Just read James Hillman's THE SOUL'S CODE, in which he argues that authors use autobiography to create a fictional counter-story to their actual life, as a way of protecting their privacy and their work. He uses Welty as one of many examples.
Meanwhile, I will say I loved this book when I read it. If it's fiction, then it's great fiction. The best way to read Welty's stories is to hear her read them. She's a marvel.
I think most autobiographies are partly fiction, Ron. What we remember isn't what the people around us might remember. It's all about perspective and how we want/wish things might have been.
Miss Welty rules!! Her novels are so diverse. The Optimist's Daughter is heart-wrenching; The Ponder Heart (hilarious) and The Robber Bridegroom (a lot of fun) are totally different in tone.
I really need to find some of her books, Katherine.
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