Editorial Reviews
Book Description
Eudora Welty (1909-2001), in her writing and in her conversation, had a dazzling and ironic wit. Many friends remember the laughter she always provoked through her sense of the absurd. Early Escapades explores the initial manifestations of her comic and creative energy, from the word poems of her adolescence to the promising parodies and caricatures she wrote and drew as a young adult. Reading the pieces and looking at her cartoons, we can feel the comic energy that swirled through her later writing, and see the beginnings of her satiric force.
Welty's artwork includes pen-and-ink drawings as well as caricatures. The compilation also includes limericks, poems, essays, editorial pieces, and society notes written by the young Welty. The earliest example of her work here is a reproduction of a small handmade book she wrote and illustrated to entertain her brother Edward. Titled "The Glorious Apology," the book is a collage of parodied newspaper and magazine clippings that tell the rollicking story of one Fitzhugh Green, son of the "whispering saxophonist" Artimus H. Green.
Early Escapades offers a prelude to Welty's mature fiction where her sharp comic sensibilities focused on deeply rooted issues: the ambiguity of relationships, the complex struggles for power in families and communities, the duality of people's perceptions. Her comedic work is a trenchant commentary on the way we lead our lives. Whether through her writings or drawings, Welty created laughter from the painful condition of being human. Early Escapades shows how Welty's art, even in its nascent stages, embraced the world's marvels, chaos, and mystery with passionate sympathy.
From the Publisher
These poems, sketches, caricatures, profiles, and satires clearly predict one of the South's comic geniuses, and:
* Feature cartoons and early writings, almost all previously unpublished, by one of America's most acclaimed writers
* Include a reproduction of a book Welty wrote, illustrated and designed to amuse her brother, which is the earliest known work created by the writer
* Include an introduction and explanatory captions by noted art historian Patti Carr Black
* Provide fans and scholars with a delightful, humorous collection of juvenilia and young adult work
Early Escapades
Early Escapades,Eudora Welty,Patti Carr Black,University Press of Mississippi,157806774X,American - General,Humorous,Individual Artist,Literary Collections,Literature - Classics / Criticism,Literature: Classics,Poetry
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