Author Profile: Eudora Welty

Full Name: Eudora Alice Welty

Born: April 13, 1909, in Jackson, Mississippi

Died: July 23, 2001, in Jackson, Mississippi

Wrote: "A Worn Path," The Optimist's Daughter

Welty grew up in Mississippi, and many of her stories are set in the South. She captures the dialect and culture of the South in her characters, possibly influenced by the Southern Renascence of the 1920s and 1930s. Her writing often features characters that endure struggles common to mankind; she realistically captures the difficulties of normal life and how people think and react. Her experiences working during the Great Depression likely influenced many of her themes of hard work and toil through adversity.