The First Story Book

A celebratory volume published to honor Welty in her ninetieth year Eudora Welty was born in Jackson, Mississippi, on April 13, 1909, ninety years ago. In celebration, this book marks the occasion by reprinting "Death of a Traveling Salesman," her first published story. It set the tone and established the high artistry of distinguished work that was to follow it over the course of more than half a century. It appeared in a little magazine called Manuscript in 1936 as the astonishingly mature work of a young writer. Welty was 27. Included here is an essay she wrote at the request of The Georgia Review. It is her reflection over her long career and a new look into her first piece of fiction to appear before the public eye. Included also are two black-and-white photographs taken by Welty in the 1930s and one photograph of Welty. These show the setting of the story, rural Mississippi of the Depression years. The version of "Death of a Traveling Salesman" printed here is the one from Manuscript. In Welty's collection A Curtain of Green and Other Stories (1941) it was reprinted with some alterations. 6 1/2 x 9 1/4 in., 48 pages, 3 b&w photographs in duotone, 500 individually numbered copies