LETTERS: Correspondence with John Ferrone.
Welty to Ferrone
On Writing, on Eating, and on Being Famous
1980-2000
Welty, Eurdora. Correspondence with John Ferrone. 1980-2000. A collection of 59 letters from Eudora Welty to John Ferrone – her editor at Harcourt, Brace Jovanovitch – broken down as follows:
22 autograph letters signed, some with enclosed clippings
16 typed letters signed, some with emendations or enclosed clippings
10 autograph postcards signed
7 Xeroxes of the earliest letters Welty sent Ferrone
two typescript copies of Welty’s Introduction to her Collected Stories,
various Xeroxes
photographs (including 11 taken at a pet cemetery)
26 of Ferrone’s typed carbon and Xerox replies
Welty wrote her letters on a variety of papers: she frequently used her personal stationary for her autograph letters – a small, nearly square leaf of paper with her name and address stamped at the top in navy blue – or a plain or lined white paper; she typed on plain white or onionskin paper. She sometimes wrote on hotel stationary, and there are two letters written on stationary from colleges. The photographs on the postcards she sent attest to a quirky sense of humor. Her handwriting is small and neat, at times so loosely spaced that the letters run away from each other and turn into a muddled scrawl; the lines of her autograph letters, however, are conscientiously spaced for easy reading. Often, in both her autograph and typed letters, she snakes her last few sentences up along the margin of the page to finish her thoughts; and she frequently adds post-scripts. Some of her typed letters have handwritten emendations.
Even though the first few letters begin formally with the greeting, “Dear Mr. Ferrone,” early on in their relationship Welty switched to the more familiar, “Dear John,” and often signed off as “Yours,” or “Love, Eudora.” Welty and Ferrone’s relationship progressed to the point where she stayed with Ferrone at his house in the country.
Welty began corresponding with Ferrone in spring of 1980, when Harcourt took on her Collected Stories, with Ferrone as editor, and continued through a relationship that long outlasted its publication. Throughout the editorial process, Welty was active in making decisions about the arrangement of stories included in the book, as well as edits within the stories. In a letter dated June, 1980, for example, she asks Ferrone to take out the word “nigger” from one story, explaining that it was written forty years ago and the word has since has become “out-of-character and glaring.” She also suggested textual changes after reading the galley proofs.
After the Collected Stories had been mocked-up, Welty wrote to Ferrone a thank-you for allowing her to see a copy of the proposed design and the jacket for Collected Stories; her response is indicative of someone with a keen eye and appreciation for the physical aspects of books: “Thank you for giving me this early book and jacket – It’s handsome, I think – with those Roman capitals and compact design of the lettering, and the nice bordering of the scarlet in the title with the gold on the black below – It’s bright and solid-looking at the same time – that’s a rewarding way for a publisher to present one’s book – I hope you feel pleased with it” (July 25, 1980). Two months later, when the book was published, Welty continues in this vein:
It’s been most handsomely made, and I like so much the warm color in the cover & binding, and the design of the flowers from the title page inside the fold across the front. And inside there’s a generous feeling of old-time spaciousness in the design – the elegant title pages and open typeface and wide margins, so pleasing to the eye – And it has a nice heft, the book – nice? It weighs in as unbelievable – do those pages really add to 622? I keep being tempted to pick it up – I feel proud that you brought it out – I’m aware of the care & patience you yourself have put into the book, and I appreciate it very much. (Sep
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