Series 23: Reviews in Publications.

Dates: 1942-1984; n.d.
Size: 0.34 cubic ft.

 

Note on Arrangement and Description:

This series contains originals and photocopies of reviews by Welty that were printed in various publications (particularly The New York Times Book Review, referred to in the list below as NYTBR). The researcher interested in Welty’s reviews should be aware that two other series, Series 16, The Eye of the Story, and Series 18, Reviews, contain drafts and other versions of reviews by Welty, and should be consulted as well, as should the correspondence of Eudora Welty to John Robinson (Series 29a), in which she discussed and included original newsclippings of some of her reviews.

The items in this series have been rearranged for better conservation. The photocopies are now housed in box 103, while the oversized newspaper sections and clippings may be found in box 319. The descriptions of the material below are largely those created by Welty scholar Suzanne Marrs for her work, The Welty Collection: A Guide to the Eudora Welty Manuscripts and Documents at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (Jackson and London: University Press of Mississippi, 1988). New material that has been added from the gift of Welty’s Estate has been entered below in bold font. Two works have been consulted frequently to resolve issues of dates and pagination: Pearl McHaney’s edition of Eudora Welty, A Writer’s Eye: Collected Book Reviews, (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1994 and Noel Polk’s Eudora Welty: A Bibliography of Her Work (Jackson and London: University Press of Mississippi, 1994).

Special Note:

In 2011, numerous additional photocopies of reviews and some original ones were transferred to this Collection from the Museum Division of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Since these too were part of the Estate gift, they are entered in bold font below, and will be differentiated from the other reviews by a double asterisk **. Several of these photocopies bear photocopied handwritten underlining or notations. Some of the photocopies are imperfect, lacking lines, column edges, or pages.

ReviewBoxFolder
“The Life of a Southern Town.” n.d. 2 pieces.
Rev. of But You’ll Be Back. By Marguerite Steedman. Saturday Review 25 (19 September 1942): 22-23. Photocopy, illegible at the margin. [1-2]. **
1031
“Plantation Country.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of Sweet Beulah Land. By Bernice Kelly Harris. New York Times Book Review 7 March 1943: 9. Photocopy. [3]. **
1031
“Women and Children.” n.d. 2 pieces.
Rev. of Between the Dark and the Daylight. By Nancy Hale. NYTBR 2 May 1943: 8. Photocopy with one indistinct line. [4-5]. **
1031
“The Great Buddha.” n.d. 2 pieces.
Rev. of The Land of the Great Image. By Maurice Collis. NYTBR 29 August 1943: 5, 16. Photocopy with incomplete first page. [6-7]. **
1031
“Victorian Half-Breed.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of The Galantrys. By Margery Allingham Carter. NYTBR 31 October 1943: 6, 12. Partial photocopy of first page only. [8]. **
1031
Rev. of A Garland of Straw. By Sylvia Townsend Warner. Tomorrow, November 1943: 52-53. 3 pieces.
Undated photocopy of only the first page of the review [11]. Also photocopied from that issue of Tomorrow are the “Contents for November 1943” [9] and the review of Welty’s The Wide Net by Katherine Woods [10]. **
1031
“Alabama Farm Boy.” n.d. 2 pieces.
Rev. of Waters over the Dam. By Harry Harrison Kroll. NYTBR 26 March 1944: 4. Photocopy [1-2].**
1032
“Mirrors for Reality.” n.d. 4 pieces.
Rev. of A Haunted House, and Other Short Stories. By Virginia Woolf. NYTBR 16 April 1944: 3. Two photocopies. One is marked “III. ‘A Haunted House.’” [3-4]. Additional photocopy [5-6].**
1032
“Strictly Perelman.” n.d. 3 pieces.
Rev. of Crazy like a Fox. By S. J. Perelman. NYTBR 2 July 1944: 6. Two photocopies. [7-8]. Additional photocopy [9].**
1032
“Tatters and Fragments of War.” n.d. 2 pieces.
Rev. of Artist at War. By George Biddle. NYTBR 16 July 1944: 3, 24. The review was written by Welty under the name “Michael Ravenna.” Photocopy [10-11.]**
1032
“Animal, Vegetable, Mineral Ghosts.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of The Great Fog and Other Weird Tales. By H. F. Heard. NYTBR 3 September 1944: 5. Photocopy [12].**
1032
“Ghoulies, Ghosties and Jumbees.” n.d. 2 pieces.
Rev. of Sleep No More. Ed. August Derleth and Jumbee and Other Uncanny Tales. By Henry S. Whitehead. NYTBR 24 Sept. 1944: 5, 21. Photocopy [13-14]. Additional photocopy [15-16].**
1032
“For the Window-Box Farmer.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of Enjoy Your House Plants. By Dorothy H. Jenkins and Helen Van Pelt Wilson. NYTBR 1 October 1944: 23. Signed “E. W.” Photocopy [17].**
1032
“One-Man Show.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of Of Men and Battle. Pictures by David Fredenthal, text by Richard Wilcox. NYTBR 15 October 1944: 24. Signed “E. W.” Photocopy [18].**
1032
“Drawn at First-Hand.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of G. I. Sketch Book. Edited by Aimee Crane. NYTBR 29 October 1944: 20. Photocopy [19].**
1032
“Hand-Picked Spooks.” 1944. 2 pieces.
Rev. of Six Novels of the Supernatural. Ed. Edward Wagenknecht. NYTBR 10 December 1944: 6.
Original, sent to Welty in an envelope from Frank H. Lyell. Handwritten comment, apparently by Lyell, on the clipping. [1-2]
3192
“Hand-Picked Spooks.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of Six Novels of the Supernatural. Ed. Edward Wagenknecht. NYTBR 10 December 1944: 6. Photocopy [20]. Additonal photocopy [21].**
1032
“Skies Without a Cloud.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of The Western Journals of Washington Irving. Edited by John Francis McDermott. NYTBR 24 December 1944: 3. Photocopy [22].**
1032
“Fine-Spun Fantasies.” n.d. 3 pieces.
Rev. of Three Who Loved. By Edita Morris. NYTBR 18 February 1945: 4-5. Photocopy [1-3].**
1033
“Salem and Its Founding Father.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of Roger Conant, A Founder of Massachusetts. By Clifford K. Shipton. NYTBR 25 Feb. 1945: 4. Photocopy. [4]. Additional photocopy. [5].**
1033
“Told with Severity and Irony.” n.d. 6 pieces.
Rev. of Apartment in Athens. By Glenway Wescott. NYTBR 4 March 1945: 1, 16, 18. Photocopy [6-11].**
1033
“Fireman Flower.” n.d. 4 pieces.
Rev. of Fireman Flower. By William Sansom. Tomorrow, May 1945: 69-70. Two photocopies [12-13; 14-15].**
1033
“Place-Names and Our History. n.d. 6 pieces.
Rev. of Names on the Land. A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States. By George R. Stewart. NYTBR 6 May 1945: 1, 14-15. Photocopy lacking the edge of the first column [16-21].**
1033
“Fall Harvest for the Young Reader.” n.d. 2 pieces.
Rev. of True and Untrue, and Other Norse Tales. Compiled by Sigrid Undset; Russian Fairy Tales. Translated by Norbert Guterman; French Fairy Tales. By Charles Perrault. Retold and introduced by Louis Untermeyer. NYTBR 11 November 1945: 7. Photocopy [22-23].**
1033
“Creole Get-Together.” n.d. 2 pieces.
Rev. of Gumbo Ya-Ya, A Collection of Louisiana Folk Tales. By Lyle Saxon, Edward Dreyer, and Robert Tallent. NYTBR 2 Jan. 1946: 5, 14. Photocopy [1-2]. Additional photocopy [3-4].**
1034
“High Jinks Travelogue.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of Westward Ha! Around the World in 80 Cliches. By S. J. Perelman. NYTBR 8 August 1948: 5. Photocopy [5]. Additional photocopy [6]; partial and partly illegible photocopy [7].**
1034
“Somnolence and Sunlight, Sound of Bells, The Pacific Surf.” 1948. 1 piece.
Rev. of Our Gifted Son. By Dorothy Baker. NYTBR. 15 August 1948: 5.
3193
“Somnolence and Sunlight, Sound of Bells, The Pacific Surf.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of Our Gifted Son. By Dorothy Baker. NYTBR. 15 August 1948: 5. Photocopy [8]. Additional photocopy [9].*
1034
“Innocents In the Wood.” n.d. 4 pieces.
Rev. of City Limit. By Hollis Summers. NYTBR 19 September 1948: 16, 18. Photocopy [10-13].**
1034
“Vets' Mental Hospital is Site of Moving Novel.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of The World Next Door. By Fritz Peters. New York Post 18 Sept. 1949: M. Photocopy [14]. Additional photocopy, with some lines too faint for easy legibility [15].**
1034
“In Yoknapatawpha.” 1949. 1 item.
Rev. of Intruder in the Dust. By William Faulkner. Hudson Review, 1 (1949): 596-98. Complete issue.
10314
“In Yoknapatawpha.” n.d. 3 pieces.
Rev. of Intruder in the Dust. By William Faulkner. Hudson Review, 1 (1949): 596-98. Photocopy. Some corrections made on photocopy. [16-18]. Additional photocopy [19-20].**
1034
“Fireworks in Italy.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of South. By William Sansom. The Saturday Review of Literature, 23 September 1950: 16-17. Photocopy [1].
1035
“Wise, Witty Novel of Europe Now.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of The World My Wilderness. By Rose Macauley. New York Post 12 Nov. 1950. Photocopy [2]. Additional photocopy [3].**
1035
“A Search, Maddening and Infectious.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of The Witch Diggers. By Jessamyn West. NYTBR 14 Jan. 1951: 5. Photocopy [4]. Additional photocopy [5].**
1035
“A Collection of Colette.” 1951. 1 piece.
Rev. of Short Novels of Colette. New York Post 30 Dec. 1951: 12M. With handwritten addition in pencil.
3194
“A Collection of Colette.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of Short Novels of Colette. New York Post 30 Dec. 1951: 12M. Photocopy [6]. Additional photocopy [7].**
1035
“When Good Meets Bad.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of Don Camillo and His Flock. By Giovanni Guareschi. NYTBR 17 August 1952: 4. Photocopy [8].**
1035
“The Seeds of Evil.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of The West Pier. By Patrick Hamilton. NYTBR 5 Oct. 1952: 5. Photocopy [9]. Additional photocopy [10].**
1035
“Life in the Barn Was Very Good.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of Charlotte’s Web. By E. B. White. NYTBR 19 October 1952: 49. Photocopy [11].**
1035
“Threads of Innocence.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of Nine Stories. By J. D. Salinger. NYTBR 5 April 1953: 4. Photocopy [12].**
1035
“The Thorntons Sit for a Family Portrait.” 1956. 4 pieces.
Rev. of Marianne Thornton: A Domestic Biography. By E. M. Forster. NYTBR 27 May 1956: 5. Three originals [1-3]. Additional original [4].**
3195
“The Thorntons Sit for a Family Portrait.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of Marianne Thornton: A Domestic Biography. By E. M. Forster. NYTBR 27 May 1956: 5. Photocopy [13].**
1035
“Ireland With Figures.” n.d. 2 pieces.
Rev. of The Green Hills and Other Stories. By Walter Macken. NYTBR 5 August 1956: 4, 12. Photocopy [14-15].**
1035
“A Touch That’s Magic.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of Last Tales. By Isak Dinesen. NYTBR 3 November 1957: 5. Photocopy [16].**
1035
“Hollingsworth Show Is 'Superlative Exhibit.'” 1958. 2 pieces.
Rev. of paintings by William Hollingsworth on exhibit at Art Gallery in Jackson. Jackson Clarion Ledger 14 Sept. 1958, sec. C: 1, 4. Original [5-6].
3195
“Uncommon Reader.” 1958. 1 piece.
Rev. of Granite and Rainbow. Essays by Virginia Woolf. NYTBR 21 Sept. 1958: 6. Original with handwritten exclamations [7].
3195
“Uncommon Reader.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of Granite and Rainbow. Essays by Virginia Woolf. NYTBR 21 Sept. 1958: 6. Photocopy [17].**
1035
“All Is Grist for His Mill.” n.d. 2 pieces.
Rev. of The Most of S. J. Perelman. NYTBR 12 Oct. 1958: 4, 14. Photocopy with handwritten correction in ink [18-19]. Additional photocopy [20-21].**
1035
“Life’s Impact Is Oblique.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of Henry Green: Nine Novels and an Unpacked Bag. By John Russell. NYTBR 2 April 1961: 5. Photocopy [2]. Attached to photocopy of “The Acceptance of Life is a Defense of the Story” (described directly below).**
1036
“The Acceptance of Life is a Defense of the Story.” 1961. 1 piece.
Rev. of The World of Isak Dinesen. By Eric O. Johannesson. NYTBR 17 Dec. 1961: 6. Photocopy [1].**
1036
“The Acceptance of Life is a Defense of the Story.” 1961. 1 piece.
Rev. of The World of Isak Dinesen. By Eric O. Johannesson. NYTBR 17 Dec. 1961: 6. Original with handwritten addition to text [8].
3195
“Time and Place--and Suspense.” n.d. 6 pieces.
Rev. of The Stories of William Sansom. NYTBR 30 June 1963: 5, 27. Original [1-2]. Photocopy with handwritten cross-throughs [3-4]. Additional photocopy with photocopied marks and directions [5-6].**
1037
“Cook, Care for the Mad, or Write.” n.d. 2 pieces.
Rev. of The Gayety of Vision: A Study of Isak Dinesen’s Art. By Robert Langbaum. NYTBR 7 February 1965: 4, 44-45. Photocopy with photocopied notes [1-2].**
1038
"Movement Never Lies." n.d. 3 pieces.
Rev. of Martha Graham: Portrait of the Lady as an Artist. By LeRoy Leatherman. Sewanee Review, 75 (Summer 1967): 529-533. Photocopy with handwritten corrections in ink [3-5].**
1038
“Four Reviews by Eudora Welty.” n.d. 3 pieces.
Reviews of: The Little Man and The Big Thief. By Erich Kästner. Otto and the Magic Potatoes. By William Pène du Bois. Knee-Knock Rise. By Natalie Babbitt. NYTBR 24 May 1970: 4-5, 45. Photocopy [1-3].**
1039
Rev. of No Flying in The House. By Betty Brock. NYTBR 8 August 1970: 22. Photocopy. n.d. 1 piece. [4].**1039
[“S. J. Perelman Should Be Declared a Living National Treasure.”] n.d. 6 pieces.
Rev. of Baby, It's Cold Inside. By S. J. Perelman. NYTBR 30 Aug. 1970: 1, 25. Two photocopies [5-8]. Additional photocopy, lacking some letters in last column [9-10].**
1039
“The stuff that nightmares are made of.” n.d. 4 pieces.
Rev. of The Underground Man. By Ross Macdonald. NYTBR 14 February 1971: 1, 28-30. Photocopy [11-14]. **
1039
“Ford never refused to help a lame dog or a promising genius.” n.d. 4 pieces.
Rev. of The Saddest Story. By Arthur Mizener. NYTBR 2 May 1971: 1, 14, 16, 18. Photocopy [15-18]. **
1039
New York Times envelope. 1971. 4 items.
Three complete NYTBR issues containing the Welty reviews described directly above were found together in an envelope from The New York Times. The envelope has identifying information by Welty on the front. There are one copy of the 14 February 1971 issue containing “The stuff that nightmares are made of,” and two copies of the 2 May 1971 issue including “Ford never refused to help a lame dog or a promising genius.”**
3196
“Everything writers and composers of musicals need to know.” 1972. 2 pieces.
Rev. of Words with Music. By Lehman Engel. NYTBR 28 May 1972: 7, 10. Original, with Welty’s handwritten note to an unidentified person: “This might amuse you. Nash Burger, also of Jackson High School, asked me (J.H.S.) to review the book by Lehman (J.H.S.).” [Nash Burger, Welty’s Jackson High School classmate, was an editor at the NYTBR; Lehman Engel, another old Jackson friend, was a noted musical conductor in New York City.] [1-2].
3197
“Everything writers and composers of musicals need to know.” 1972. 2 pieces.
Rev. of Words with Music. By Lehman Engel. NYTBR 28 May 1972: 7, 10. Photocopy [1-2].**
10310
“A collection of old new stories by E. M. Forster.” n. d. 3 pieces.
Rev. of The Life to Come and Other Short Stories. By E. M. Forster. NYTBR 13 May 1973: 27, 28, 30. Photocopy [3-5].**
10310
“Meditation on seeing.” n.d. 2 pieces.
Rev. of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. By Annie Dillard. NYTBR 24 March 1974: 4-5. Photocopy [6-7].**
10310
“Africa and Paris and Russia.” 1974. 6 pieces.
Rev. of The Last of the Nuba. By Leni Riefenstahl. J'Aime Paris. By Andre Kertesz. About Russia. By Henri Cartier-Bresson. NYTBR 1 December 1974: 5, 22, 28. Two sets of originals, one with a handwritten correction. [3-8].
3197
“Africa and Paris and Russia.” 1974. 4 pieces.
Rev. of The Last of the Nuba. By Leni Riefenstahl. J'Aime Paris. By Andre Kertesz. About Russia. By Henri Cartier-Bresson. NYTBR 1 December 1974: 5, 22, 28. Photocopy, lacking top of one line [8-11].**
10310
“As If She Had Been Invited into the World.” 1975. 2 pieces.
Rev. of Pictures and Conversations. By Elizabeth Bowen. NYTBR 5 Jan. 1975: 4, 20. Original with handwritten direction by Welty. [9-10].
3197
“As If She Had Been Invited into the World.” n.d. 2 pieces.
Rev. of Pictures and Conversations. By Elizabeth Bowen. NYTBR 5 January 1975: 4, 20. Photocopy, lacking edge of last column [12-13].**
10310
“Life's possibilities are those very things once felt as dangers.” 1975. 2 pieces.
Rev. of The Cockatoos. By Patrick White. NYTBR 19 Jan. 1975: 4, 37. Original with handwritten corrections. [11-12].
3197
[“Life's possibilities are those very things once felt as dangers.”] 1975. 2 pieces.
Rev. of The Cockatoos. By Patrick White. NYTBR 19 Jan. 1975: 4, 37. Photocopy pasted to paper [14-15]. Additional photocopy [16-17].**
10310
“Virginia Woolf.” 1976. 7 pieces.
Rev. of The Letters of Virginia Woolf, Vol. II: 1912-1922. NYTBR 14 Nov. 1976: 1, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20. Original with handwritten markings on title page; “III 1. (c)” [1-7].
3198
“Virginia Woolf.” 1976. 7 pieces.
Rev. of The Letters of Virginia Woolf, Vol. II: 1912-1922. NYTBR 14 Nov. 1976: 1, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20. Photocopy [18-24].**
10310
“Selected Letters of William Faulkner.” n.d. 6 pieces.
Rev. of Selected Letters of William Faulkner. Edited by Joseph Blotner. NYTBR 6 February 1977: 1, 28-30. Photocopy, with some columns cut or illegible [1-6].**
10311
“Post Mortem.” 1977. 2 pieces.
Rev. of The Never-Ending Wrong. By Katherine Anne Porter. NYTBR 21 Aug. 1977: 9, 29. Original [8-9].
3197
“Post Mortem.” n.d. 3 pieces.
Rev. of The Never-Ending Wrong. By Katherine Anne Porter. NYTBR 21 Aug. 1977: 9, 29. Photocopy [7-9].**
10311
“Dateless Virtues.” 1977. 2 pieces.
Rev. of Essays of E.B. White. NYTBR 25 Sept. 1977: 7, 43. Original. [10-11].
3198
“Dateless Virtues.” n.d. 2 pieces.
Rev. of Essays of E. B. White. NYTBR 25 Sept. 1977: 7, 43. Photocopy [10-11].**
10311
“A Family of Emotions.” 1978. 2 pieces.
Rev. of Selected Stories. By V. S. Pritchett. NYTBR 25 June 1978: 1, 39-40. [1-2].
3199
“A Family of Emotions.” 1978. 2 pieces.
Rev. of Selected Stories. By V. S. Pritchett. NYTBR 25 June 1978: 1. Partial photocopy: first page only [12].**
10311
“Seventy-Nine Stories to Read Again.” n.d. 4 pieces.
Rev. of The Collected Stories of Elizabeth Bowen. NYTBR 8 February 1981: 3, 22. [1-2].**
31910
“Seventy-Nine Stories to Read Again.” n.d. 4 pieces.
Rev. of The Collected Stories of Elizabeth Bowen. NYTBR 8 February 1981: 3, 22. Photocopy [13-16].**
10311
“Innocence, Sin and J. D. Salinger.” 1984. 2 pieces.
Rev. of The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature. By Humphrey Carpenter and Mari Prichard. NYTBR 19 August 1984: 3, 17 [1-2].
31911
“Innocence, Sin and J. D. Salinger.” n.d. 2 pieces.
Rev. of The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature. By Humphrey Carpenter and Mari Prichard. NYTBR 19 August 1984: 3, 17. Photocopy [17-18].**
10311
Envelope accompanying photocopies. n.d. 1 piece.
Labeled by Welty “Duplicates etc. of non-fiction used in book.” [The envelope accompanied the photocopies originally in the collection, indicated in regular font.]
10312

 

Associated Reviews

Photocopies of three additional “Michael Ravenna” reviews were found interfiled with the reviews by Eudora Welty that were transferred to the Collection in 2011. While Welty used the pen name in her review of George Biddle’s Artist at War, Nash Burger wrote as “Michael Ravenna” as well, and the reviews below are apparently his work. Perhaps they were copied for Welty in error? (On the authorship of the Ravenna reviews, see Pearl McHaney’s introduction to Eudora Welty, A Writer’s Eye: Collected Book Reviews, (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1994), pp. xix-xx, and Noel Polk’s Eudora Welty: A Bibliography of Her Work (Jackson and London: University Press of Mississippi, 1994), p. 387.)

ReviewBoxFolder
“German Home Front.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of Furlough. By Franz Hoellering. Signed Michael Ravenna. NYTBR 20 August 1944: 5. Photocopy.**
10313
“Far North.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of I Got a Country. By Gilbert Gabriel. Signed Michael Ravenna. NYTBR 27 August 1944: 5. Photocopy.**
10313
“Mississippi Delta.” n.d. 1 piece.
Rev. of Tournament. By Shelby Foote. Signed Michael Ravenna. NYTBR 25 September 1949: 30. Photocopy.**
10313

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