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At colleges
across the country, students read the completed works of Eudora
Welty. But at Millsaps, students get to read Welty's mail.
Led by English
professor Dr. Suzanne Marrs, thirteen Millsaps students have stepped
out of the classroom and into the life Eudora Welty. The students
are working to document and catalog letters sent to Welty by various
writers, including poets William Jay Smith and Hubert Creekmore
and author Reynolds Price. The information in the letters is being
catalogued and then put into a database. The class will then attempt
to determine how each individual writer influenced Welty's works
and vice versa.
"The work
we are doing is of great significance to our own education and to
the academic community in general," said student Charlie Mock
of Brandon. "The information found in these letters will continue
to shed light on a wonderful woman's work, thus giving the world
a greater insight into her writing."
In 1957, Welty
donated a collection of her manuscripts, papers, personal correspondence
and photographs to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History
(MDAH). She continued to donate her personal affects to the MDAH
throughout the remainder of life, creating the most impressive and
extensive Welty collection in the world.
In 1986, Welty
revised her estate so that ownership of her house would pass to
the state of Mississippi upon her death. The Millsaps students'
work is a part of the efforts of the MDAH
and the Eudora Welty Foundation to establish The Welty House Museum.
The museum will serve as an inspiring venue for regional literary
events in addition to offering exhibits and tours of the house and
garden.
The Stewart
Family Chair in Language and Literature at Millsaps, Marrs teaches
courses in composition, nineteenth- and twentieth-century American
literature and twentieth-century Southern literature.
Marrs is the
author of The Welty Collection and numerous articles on Eudora
Welty's fiction. Her most recent publication, One Writer's Imagination:
The Fiction of Eudora Welty, arrived in bookstores this fall.
In 1985 and
1986, Marrs was the Welty Scholar in Residence at the MDAH. She
has lectured on Miss Welty's works in the U.S., Russia and France
and served as a consultant for the 1987 BBC documentary on Eudora
Welty. Marrs received the Phoenix Award for Outstanding Achievement
in Eudora Welty Scholarship in 1998.
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