A Place Like Mississippi by W. Ralph Eubanks

Author:W. Ralph Eubanks
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Timber Press
Published: 2021-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

A view of the Yocona River, a site thought to be the inspiration for the river crossing of the Bundren family in William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying.

The Meek-Duvall House, or the “A Rose for Emily” house.

The Thompson-Chandler House.

Yes, Faulkner’s world exists throughout Oxford. You just have to know where to look.

On a small side street in Oxford stands the regal neoclassical home that once belonged to local physician John Culley and his wife, Nina. It was here that, after a brief correspondence, William Faulkner met Eudora Welty for the first time. The link between the two writers started with a hastily typed letter filled with inaccuracies.

On a piece of unadorned stationery dated April 27, 1943, in an envelope with a Hollywood postmark, William Faulkner wrote a letter to Eudora Welty. “Dear Welty,” it began, “You are doing fine. You are doing all right. I read THE GILDED SIX BITS, a friend loaned me THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM, I just bought the collection named GREEN something, haven’ t read it yet, expect nothing from it because I expect from you[sic]. You are doing fine. Is there any way that I can help you?”

Oddly enough, William Faulkner confused Eudora Welty with Zora Neale Hurston, which did not upset Welty in the least. But “GREEN something” was Welty’s story collection A Curtain of Green. Welty simply described the letter to friends as “strange stuff.” In spite of the letter’s odd tone, Welty was heartened by the praise from Faulkner, a writer she had long admired. Interestingly enough, Welty never sought Faulkner’s help.

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