Series 43: Business Records, Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)

Series 43: Business Records.

Dates: 1917-2003; n.d.
Size: 3.30 cubic ft.

The business records of Eudora Welty consist of legal and financial records, as well as correspondence and professional papers documenting her career. They include correspondence with literary agents, publishers, dramatists and directors concerning the publication and production of her works; letters exchanged with tax attorneys and accountants regarding her deductions and donations; accounts of her income and expenses; statements of royalties for her literary works; legal contracts and financial records regarding their publication or production; papers and publicity materials relating to her literary career; records of her travels for professional or personal purposes; financial records concerning the care of her home, garden, and her personal interests; and legal and financial records concerning the real estate and insurance holdings of her family. This wide variety of papers makes this series an important complement to the other letters from Welty’s literary agents and publishers in Series 29, and the various series that are devoted to her manuscripts.

The business records of this series are arranged by format and then roughly chronologically; however, those papers already found in folders at time of processing, most of which were created by Welty, have been kept together, and the titles of these folders are given in quotation marks.

Business Correspondence: 1969-1997; n.d. 0.33 cubic ft. 

This first seven folders of this subseries contain correspondence involving Eudora Welty’s literary agents at Russell and Volkening, Inc. There is a letter from Diarmuid Russell, Welty’s longtime agent, but most of the letters and memoranda are sent by his successor, Tim Seldes, and other agents at the company, including Harriet Wasserman. These papers contain: accounts of advances and royalties for Welty’s works, including dramatic performances of The Robber Bridegroom and One Time, One Place (Box 426, folder 2); information on contracts with publishers including those for foreign editions (e.g. folder 7); as well as requests for rights to publish, reproduce or to use her works, and communications with persons using her works without permission. Of interest are the letters from Tim Seldes discussing Diarmuid Russell’s health and retirement and his note responding to Welty’s news of the death of Frank Hains, director of the New Stage theatre in Jackson; and the letter from Virginia Faulkner, editor of the University of Nebraska Press, discussing the copyright arrangements for Welty’s "The House of Willa Cather" in the press’s The Art of Willa Cather (folder 1). There are also letters transmitted to Welty through Russell and Volkening, including a personal one from Louis Rubin, enclosing a memorandum concerning the Fellowship of Southern Writers, and providing news of Shelby Foote’s family (folder 4).

A folder labeled "Random House" includes documentation of Welty’s removal of Losing Battles from the publisher Harcourt, Brace and World, and her subsequent placement of the novel with Random House. This folder includes an original and copies of letters from Diarmuid Russell and William Jovanovich on Welty’s decision to change publishers (see also Series 29b letters from Jovanovich and Russell, and Series 29a letters from Welty); letters from different publishers wanting to acquire and publish Losing Battles; letters and notes from Albert Erskine in May 1970 on the production of the novel, and a note from Bennet Cerf, chairman of Random House sending Welty her leather-bound copy of it. The "Random House" folder also contains material on the publication of The Optimist’s Daughter: a December 7, 1971, note from Erskine is attached to photocopied examples of copy for the jacket flap; and a January 1972 note relates to the galleys and changes in the novel. Also included is a photocopy of a news article on the death of Henry Volkening, the other partner of Russell’s literary agency. Found with the "Random House" folder was a 1979 memorandum from Tim Seldes congratulating her for her April appearance on the Dick Cavett show.

The "Robber Bridegroom" "Broadway Company" "1976" folder contains correspondence concerning the creation of the musical version of The Robber Bridegroom, including letters from librettist Alfred Uhry. His first communication proposing the venture to Welty in 1973 was sent via Tim Seldes, and accompanied by a letter from Richard Lewine, who was then planning to compose the musical. There is a March 28, 1976, letter describing a trip made by Uhry and his collaborators to Rodney and the Mississippi countryside to get a feeling for the Natchez Trace; and correspondence of May and June that year discussing casting and rehearsal plans. The folder also includes a September 15, 1976, letter from John Houseman inviting Welty to the October 5th benefit performance of The Robber Bridegroom by his Acting Company.

Letters, both handwritten and typed, from John Ferrone, editor of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich World, Inc., document the publication of The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Harcourt in 1981 (folders 13 and 14). Ferrone’s correspondence concerns Welty’s preface and includes galleys of her "Foreword"; an announcement of the publication party for Welty on October 29, 1980; two photographs of Welty at a reception (perhaps on that occasion); and copies of the best seller lists noting the ranking of her book. There is a congratulatory letter from William Jovanovich, and a letter from the Franklin Library asking for a "special message" from Welty for their first edition of The Collected Stories... A letter by Alfred A Knopf of the Athenaeum is also included; it apologizes for contravening a contract with Harcourt through the Athenaeum’s attempt to publish a paperback edition of The Robber Bridegroom, thus necessitating the destruction of 1,000 copies of the work.

This subseries also contains a letter and publicity questionnaire for Faber and Faber Limited’s edition of One Writer’s Beginnings; as well as two documents in a folder by Welty, "File Archives" "concerning MSS etc.": a letter from The Writer’s Workshop concerning her reading and workshop in Asheville, North Carolina, in July 1990; and a copy of a letter from Welty’s attorney in Jackson, D. Carl Black, Jr., asking W. T. Hogg, chairman of the Eudora Welty Birthplace Foundation, to desist in the use of her name.

Tax Correspondence. 0.25 cubic ft. 1963-1998; n.d. 

This subseries consists primarily of folders created by Welty for the originals and copies of her correspondence with Richard Ader. The New York attorney was recommended to Welty in 1964 by Welty’s literary agent, Diarmuid Russell. In her first letter to him (draft copy, box 427, folder 6), Welty requested Ader’s assistance in matters concerning tax deductions, particularly those from expenses resulting from her mother’s illness. A major subject of her correspondence with Ader was Welty’s attempt to claim a deduction from the Internal Revenue Service for her 1969 donation of manuscripts to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, including Losing Battles, and The New Yorker version of The Optimist’s Daughter, a donation the Internal Revenue Service contended has been made after the passage of a law rendering such deductions invalid. There are documents attesting to the donation from various members of the Department, including directors Charlotte Capers and Richard A. McLemore, and numerous letters from Welty, Ader, and the IRS officials examining Welty’s claim. Despite several appeals, the IRS ruled against Welty, and the case was closed in 1973.

Ader evidently enjoyed Welty’s friendship and confidence. He gave her advice on tax deductions (folder 8) and financial investments (folders 10-12). Ader was informed by Diarmuid Russell of Welty’s problems with the publishing house of Harcourt, Brace and World that resulted in her 1969 removal of Losing Battles to Random House for publication (folder 6), and was involved in negotiations of royalties (such as the ones for The Robber Bridegroom mentioned in folder 8). Ader consulted on the preparation of her will and advised on the naming a literary executor (folder 6). His correspondence with Welty therefore contains information on several gifts of books to libraries; and bequests Welty made, including those to the Mississippi University for Women in Columbus, Mississippi, to New Stage Theatre, and to Millsaps College in Jackson. There are letters in these files discussing further donations of manuscripts, including One Writer’s Beginnings, to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, as well as her gift of her house to the state of Mississippi, and donations to the Department of Archives and History for her home’s preservation. It should also be noted that although Richard Ader’s correspondence is the focus of these files, one may also find materials herein from and concerning, her accountants, David H. Jassy and his successor, Lewis A. Helphand, as well as her Jackson lawyer, D. Carl Black, Jr.

Financial records related to taxes. 0.25 cubic ft. 1970-1990; n.d. 

This subseries consists primarily of information regarding Welty’s taxes, and information concerning gifts and bequests. There are three folders containing lists compiled by Welty of income tax information for 1970-1979, 1980-1985, and 1986-1990 (box 427, folders 15, 16, and 24), documenting her income and expenditures for those years. Listed are items including her income from writing and reviews, lectures, and readings; dividends from stocks; tax and insurance payments; work expenses, including clothing for lectures; expenditures for the maintenance of her home and garden; medical expenses; travel expenses and those accrued in the entertainment of literary colleagues; as well as charitable gifts and contributions, including those of books. (Additional lists for some of these years (1970-1988) may be found in her account books described below.) The 1980 tax information list (folder 16) includes both handwritten and typed lists and mentions under "expenses and repairs to household," her purchase of deadbolts for the side doors, a purchase made as the result of the burglary of her house on November 27, 1980.

Information assembled for and correspondence with her certified public accountant, David H. Jassy, is also included in this series. Folder 17 consists of letters from him concerning questions on the tax due on Unifirst Bank for Savings, Jackson, Mississippi, certificates of deposit in 1979; folder 19 is defined by Welty as tax information for him for 1981. This folder contains correspondence between Jassy and Welty regarding her taxes, stock investments, and deductions, and includes a 1981 list of tax information drawn up by Welty.

A major focus of folder 19 is Welty’s December 1981 gift to Millsaps College, Jackson, in memory of her friend, Frank H. Lyell, of first editions of her works. The folder contains lists of the twenty books donated, with thank you letters from Millsaps officials, an appraisal of nineteen of them (all but Retreat) by George Bixby of Ampersand Books, and a partial copy of a letter Welty wrote to Richard Ader addressing the donation. There follow other folders created by Welty concerning this gift. Folder 20 includes a 1979 receipt for the purchase of two first editions from Ampersand Books, with an envelope noting Welty’s intent to donate them in Lyell’s memory. Folder 22 contains correspondence between Welty and the president and librarian of Millsaps regarding the books, as well as a December 17, 1981, letter from Welty to George Bixby describing the books she was donating and the information she was providing him, and another copy of his appraisal of them. In folder 23 is material Welty provided Bixby to assist his appraisal: photocopies of the title, end, and inscribed pages of the books.

Other folders in this subseries include information concerning gifts made by Welty. Folder 29 is a list of books donated to the Eudora Welty Municipal Library in Jackson. There is an appraisal (in folder 25) of her manuscripts donated to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in 1969 (at the time of her dispute with the IRS mentioned above), and a 1983 letter from MDAH Director Elbert Hilliard describing plans and funding for the preservation of her house after its donation to the state of Mississippi (folder 27). Folder 28 documents monetary donations to Millsaps College and to other institutions including Galloway Memorial United Methodist Church in Jackson. In folder 30 of this subseries is a packet of donation information provided by Yaddo, the artists’ retreat in Saratoga Springs, New York, that Welty kept "for ideas on gifts." Finally, there are lists of categories and envelopes with handwritten labels for sorting tax materials from 1981-1987 (folder 31).

Account books. 1965-1988. 0.50 cubic ft. 

This subseries consists of small note, cash, or memorandum books containing Welty’s handwritten records of income and expenses as well as important financial and identity numbers. Probably kept for tax purposes, they also document her professional career. The books include records of the income from royalties and fees received by her literary agents Russell and Volkening; from speaking engagements, conferences, and activities such as her participation in the National Council on the Arts; teaching appointments; and awards such as the Lyndhurst Foundation prize. Included as well are records of her personal investments in stocks, bonds and certificates of deposit. Expenses recorded include those related to her career as a writer: supplies and mailing expenses for her writing; travel for professional purposes; clothing purchased for professional activities; books and magazines she considered useful to her work; and the entertainment of professional colleagues and scholars. She also noted payments made on taxes and insurance, as well as house and garden maintenance and repair costs; utilities, medical and legal expenses; and charitable contributions. Although many of the pages in each book are blank, the entries are specific, and provide the names of the entities involved: the organizations from which Welty received payments; the companies and people she hired for work on her house and yard; her doctors, secretary, and lawyers; the names of guests she entertained; the institutions and causes she supported; and places to which she traveled. Events of her personal life appear: the 1965 book notes payments to the Martha Coker Convalescent Home where her mother received care in Yazoo City, Mississippi, and notebooks from 1968 through 1970 record distributions from her mother’s estate. The 1984 one records the expenses of her trip to England. There is no notebook from 1966, and the income entries for 1988 appear incomplete: records of revenue from Welty’s literary agents, Russell and Volkening end in April, and there are few entries for investment income that year.

Royalty Statements. 1951-1996. 1.00 cubic ft. 

This subseries consists of statements of royalties, and some advances, paid to Eudora Welty for domestic and international sales of books and recordings. Most of the royalties were sent through her literary agents at Russell and Volkening, Inc., and there are occasional notes and memoranda from Diarmuid Russell or Tim Seldes. From 1951 until 1970, royalties from Harcourt Brace and Company (and its successors), predominate; then in 1970, royalty statements appear from Random House (Welty received them first for Losing Battles, and, by 1973, for The Optimist’s Daughter). Other records include royalties for dramatic performances of Welty’s work, including The Robber Bridegroom, and audio recordings by Caedmon (by 1990, a subsidiary of Harper-Collins Publishers) of Welty reading some of her works. There are also statements from university presses, including that of Harvard University for One Writer’s Beginnings, starting in 1984, and the University Press of Mississippi for works such as Photographs, The Shoe Bird, and A Writer’s Eye: Collected Book Reviews. Further information on Welty’s royalties may be found in the correspondence of Russell and Volkening in Series 29b: Select Correspondence, and in the tax information and account books of this series.

Miscellaneous business papers. 1941; 1983; 1989-1992; n.d. 0.17 cubic ft. 

This subseries includes both legal and financial records. Legal agreements made through Russell and Volkening in 1941 for editions of Welty’s works (box 429, folder 32) include contracts for the purchase of serial rights to "Clytie," "The Key," "The Purple Hat," and "First Love," for Hearst Magazines, Inc. An application for a license to engage in foreign transaction is attached to a memorandum of agreement between Russell and Volkening and Samlerens Forlag for the publication of a Danish translation of A Curtain of Green. Among the financial records is a payment stub issued on April 27, 1983, for the honorarium Welty received from Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for the lectures that became One Writer’s Beginnings (folder 33), and three papers (folder 34) documenting expenses for entertainment. Among these are bills from the Jackson restaurant Nick’s: one for a dinner party for Roger Mudd in 1989; another for a dinner on March 20, 1992. There is also a list of people entertained by Welty with drinks and occasionally meals. This list records the names of the guests, and the month and day of the event from January through August, but no year is given, and only for two guests, Danièle Pithavy and Paul Binding, is the cost of providing drinks and lunch or dinner recorded.

Box 429: folders 32-34.

Professional Papers. 1947-2003; n.d. 0.34 cubic ft. 

This subseries contains materials relating to Welty’s career as an author and reviewer, and her professional activities with the publishing industry. Among these papers are receipts for books acquired, and for review copies received, by Welty, as well as instructions for the reviewer. There are some records of foreign printings and transmittals of Welty’s works. Three lists are also included. One records nominations for literature awards given in 1971 by the American Academy of Arts and Letters (to which Welty belonged). It provides the names of candidates, nominators, and the categories for which the candidates were proposed, and includes handwritten entries in pencil, probably by Welty. There is a 1986 list of American authors who were published by British publishing houses, with the titles of their works (Welty’s Losing Battles appears). The third list, written by Welty on a checkbook cover, identifies medals she had won that were kept in her safe deposit box in 1987.

Publicity materials form a significant part of these papers. There are those from publishers of Welty’s works, consisting of promotional cards and advertising for Welty’s books and audio recordings; a limited edition bookmark celebrating Welty’s eighty-fifth birthday and the publication of Pearl McHaney’s edition of A Writer’s Eye: Collected Book Reviews in 1994 (box 430, folder 8); and bookplates autographed by Welty found in an envelope from John Ferrone. Publicity materials received by Welty are also present, including promotional announcements for other authors produced by the publishers of foreign editions of Welty’s works, as well as those found in books that Welty collected. Placed in this subseries too are announcements of events such as award ceremonies, artistic exhibitions, and notices of upcoming publications and catalogues.

Bookmarks, business cards, and "with compliments" cards are also present. Some of the latter are for copies of books by Welty herself, but others were sent her by the authors or publishers with complimentary copies of their works. If the books that accompanied the bookmarks or complimentary cards have been identified, the bookmarks or cards are arranged alphabetically by the names of the authors of the books in which they were found. A final folder contains miscellaneous items such as inspection slips of foreign works, a blank bookplate, labels, and a humorous advertising card in false Latin from Algonquin books of Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Travel Papers. 1971; 1974-1992; n.d. 0.33 cubic ft. 

These financial papers housed in box 432 document Eudora Welty’s travels for personal and professional purposes from 1971 through 1992. The first folder concerns Welty’s service as consultant to the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities, and consists of a notification of personnel action; a travel authorization; compensation claims and vouchers for Welty’s travel to meetings of the National Council of the Arts. Folders two through twenty include itineraries from Bonner Travel Service or Bryan Tours, Incorporated, flight confirmations, airline and cruise ship tickets; baggage checks; receipts and bills from hotels (particularly The Algonquin, the hotel Welty preferred in New York City) and sometimes restaurants, as well as occasional printed schedules of events at conferences. Of particular interest are the papers concerning European trips: three folders (folders 5-7) concern her 1984 transatlantic trip from New York by ship on the Queen Elizabeth 2 to London and then to Italy (via France); and two folders (folders 14-15) focus on her April-May 1990 trip to London, and include a luncheon bill at the Ritz Hotel. Her travel papers bear witness to Welty’s busy schedule during the latter part of her career. For example, the folder for October-December 1991 (folder 17), includes Bryan Tours itineraries for trips from Jackson to New York (LaGuardia) and back from November 4-7 and November 19-22. On November 30, Welty went again from Jackson to New York, and on December 6, from New York to Tulsa, returning to Jackson on December 8, 1991. There are notes by Welty, some of them recording people she saw and occasions she enjoyed during her trips. Charges and addresses on her hotel bills also may help identify the occasions for the trips: her November 4-7 bill at The Algonquin gives her address (in an abbreviated form) as the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, where she was attending meetings; her November 19-22 hotel bill is from The Plaza, and directed to her at The National Book Foundation, whose Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters she was to receive.

Some folders created by Welty contain unexpected items. In Welty’s "Commitments 1988 and ’89" folder (11), are a plane ticket for 1988; a flight itinerary from Jackson to New York for May 1992, and a list of books sent her with the compliments of the Harvard University Press in February 1988. The last two folders of this subseries contain miscellaneous materials. In folder 21 are two telephone messages. An unspecified hotel telephone message, dated only "6-2," informs Welty of a call from "Mr. Fields." If this is Joseph Fields, the note could have been made in 1956 when Welty was in New York that June to see the Joseph Fields and Jerry Chodorov theatrical production of The Ponder Heart. The other message is from Jill Evans of BBC-TV, dated October 1, 1984, asking for a meeting during Welty’s stay in London at The Basil Hotel. Folder 22 contains an undated list of expenses in Welty’s hand for a stay in New York, including a room at The Algonquin Hotel, and train travel to Boston.

Personal and household financial records. 1954-1999; n.d. 0.13 cubic ft.

These records include three folders of financial documents originally kept in a file envelope for Eudora Welty’s niece, Mary Alice Welty White. The folders contain Eudora Welty’s check registers and cancelled checks from 1969-1997 (box 433, folder 1); bills of sale and trade-ins for automobiles from 1954-1978 (folder 2); as well as some bills related to the decoration and repair of items in the house: the purchase of a painting for her house (Pierre Bonnard’s La Coupe), the purchase and repair of furniture, and the repair of a range (folder 3). A separate folder (folder 4) contains bills relating to house, household, and garden supplies and expenses, including work on plumbing, heating, painting, lighting, as well as the addition of a handrail in the house. There are a termite protection contract, a receipt for payment for homeowners’ renewal, a personal articles insurance floater, and utility payment receipts. Also included in the folder are three lists: one of money due Welty’s assistant Darryl Howard and other caregivers dated June 17, 1996; one of repair work done to the house between 1968 and 1984; and a list of the paintings in the house with their creators’ names and their values, described by room for insurance purposes. Three business cards relate to house repair and service, including that of the police detective of the burglary unit of the Jackson police department, possibly the one who investigated the burglary of Welty’s house on November 27, 1980 (folder 4). There follows a folder containing a report of the burglary provided by Welty to her insurance company: it lists the stolen items, with supporting records of purchase (folder 5). The final folders in this subseries document miscellaneous expenses, including purchases of photograph books, and services such as framing, photocopying, and shipping in folder 6; memberships in The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The American Film Institute, and The Museum of Modern Art for 1982-1983 in folder 7; and a statement from Welty’s lawyer, D. Carl Black, Jr., of the legal expenses incurred by his firm (Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens & Cannada) for the preparation of Welty’s will in 1987 (folder 8).

Family legal and financial papers. 1917-ca.1986. 0.61 cubic ft.

These papers consist principally of records of land holdings and insurance policies owned by various members of the Welty family. In box 434, folders 1-4 contain property records of Eudora Welty’s parents, Christian Webb Welty and Chestina Andrews Welty, from 1917-1940. These include tax receipts, quitclaim and warranty deeds documenting property acquisitions, exchanges, and sales, in Jackson and in Hinds and Rankin counties, Mississippi, as well as liens on property and promissory notes. Several of the documents concern records of land transactions between Christian and Chestina Welty and the family of Wiley P. Harris, including a 1921 Mississippi land patent for Wiley P. Harris (box 435, folder 1). The Weltys entered into property or financial negotiations with the Lamar Life Insurance Company (of which Christian Welty was an officer and finally president); the First Baptist Church of Jackson; and the Executive Committee of Education of the Synod of Mississippi of the Presbyterian Church of the United States. Of particular interest is a statement, “Real Estate, March 1, 1928,” that lists properties owned by Christian Welty, and includes attendant papers (box 434, folder 3). There is also a contract and duplicate for the 1955 leasing of the eastside apartment in the 1123 Pinehurst duplex owned by Chestina Welty to Mrs. Evelyn O’Steen (box 434, folder 10). Real estate tax receipts for both Chestina Welty, from 1959-1965, and Eudora Welty from 1976-1981, are included in box 434, folder 11. Folder 12 of that box contains Homestead Exemption applications from 1958 through 1961.

Insurance holdings of the family are also documented through original or copies of life insurance policies and the application materials for them. A Lamar Life Company insurance policy for Chestina Andrews Welty was made to the benefit of Walter Welty in 1930 (box 434, folder 5). Policies for Eudora’s parents to her benefit were made in 1926 and 1929 (box 435, folder 2, and box 434, folder 6). In 1929, one for Eudora was also made with Chestina Welty as beneficiary (box 435, folder 2), and in 1966 a memorandum was written concerning the payment of dividends due from that policy (box 434, folder 7). There are also correspondence and forms regarding a Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York policy for Eudora Welty and its payment options dating from 1974-1984 (box 434, folder 8). Forms for information and taxes, and a request for reinvestment of United States Series H treasury bonds due to mature in 1986 are in box 434, folder 9.

Information on the estates of Welty’s parents may also be found in this series. There is an unsigned copy of the last will and testament of C. W. (Christian Webb) Welty, dated November 10, 1930 (box 434, folder 13), and papers relating to the estate of Chestina Welty dating from 1952-1968 (box 434, folder 14). Among these are correspondence from attorneys; two copies of a 1968 United States Fiduciary Income Tax Return with listings of Chestina Welty’s stock dividends, interest, and shares; and an inventory of the her lock box in the First National Bank of Jackson, Mississippi. According to this inventory, the lock box held Chestina Welty’s last will and testament; her life, fire and hospital insurance policies; and stock certificates and bonds.

In the list below, for the researcher’s convenience, all variants of Welty names (e.g. “Christian Webb Welty,” “Chestina Andrews Welty,” “Eudora Alice Welty”) appearing on legal documents have been standardized to “C. W. Welty,” “Chestina A. Welty” and “Eudora Welty.”

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