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Delta Wedding / The Ponder Heart
Set in 1923, Delta Wedding is an exquisitely woven story of southern family life, centered around the Fairchild family’s preparations for a wedding at their Mississippi plantation.
In The Ponder Heart, a comic masterpiece, Miss Edna Earle Ponder, one of the few living members of a once prominent family, tells a traveling salesman the history of her family and fellow townsfolk.
This edition brings together two fine works from one of the most beloved writers of the American south.
In The Ponder Heart, a comic masterpiece, Miss Edna Earle Ponder, one of the few living members of a once prominent family, tells a traveling salesman the history of her family and fellow townsfolk.
This edition brings together two fine works from one of the most beloved writers of the American south.
408 pages, Hardcover
First published May 18, 201
21 people are currently reading
78 people want to read
About the author
Eudora Welty
249 books1,042 followersEudora Alice Welty was an award-winning American author who wrote short stories and novels about the American South. Her book The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973 and she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous awards. She was the first living author to have her works published by the Library of America.
Welty was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and lived a significant portion of her life in the city's Belhaven neighborhood, where her home has been preserved. She was educated at the Mississippi State College for Women (now called Mississippi University for Women), the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Columbia Business School. While at Columbia University, where she was the captain of the women's polo team, Welty was a regular at Romany Marie's café in 1930.
During the 1930s, Welty worked as a photographer for the Works Progress Administration, a job that sent her all over the state of Mississippi photographing people from all economic and social classes. Collections of her photographs are One Time, One Place and Photographs.
Welty's true love was literature, not photography, and she soon devoted her energy to writing fiction. Her first short story, "Death of a Traveling Salesman," appeared in 1936. Her work attracted the attention of Katherine Anne Porter, who became a mentor to her and wrote the foreword to Welty's first collection of short stories, A Curtain of Green, in 1941. The book immediately established Welty as one of American literature's leading lights and featured the legendary and oft-anthologized stories "Why I Live at the P.O.," "Petrified Man," and "A Worn Path." Her novel, The Optimist's Daughter, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973.
In 1992, Welty was awarded the Rea Award for the Short Story for her lifetime contributions to the American short story, and was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, founded in 1987. In her later life, she lived near Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi, where, despite her fame, she was still a common sight among the people of her hometown.
Eudora Welty died of pneumonia in Jackson, Mississippi, at the age of 92, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson.
Excerpted and adopted from Wikipedia.
Welty was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and lived a significant portion of her life in the city's Belhaven neighborhood, where her home has been preserved. She was educated at the Mississippi State College for Women (now called Mississippi University for Women), the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Columbia Business School. While at Columbia University, where she was the captain of the women's polo team, Welty was a regular at Romany Marie's café in 1930.
During the 1930s, Welty worked as a photographer for the Works Progress Administration, a job that sent her all over the state of Mississippi photographing people from all economic and social classes. Collections of her photographs are One Time, One Place and Photographs.
Welty's true love was literature, not photography, and she soon devoted her energy to writing fiction. Her first short story, "Death of a Traveling Salesman," appeared in 1936. Her work attracted the attention of Katherine Anne Porter, who became a mentor to her and wrote the foreword to Welty's first collection of short stories, A Curtain of Green, in 1941. The book immediately established Welty as one of American literature's leading lights and featured the legendary and oft-anthologized stories "Why I Live at the P.O.," "Petrified Man," and "A Worn Path." Her novel, The Optimist's Daughter, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973.
In 1992, Welty was awarded the Rea Award for the Short Story for her lifetime contributions to the American short story, and was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, founded in 1987. In her later life, she lived near Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi, where, despite her fame, she was still a common sight among the people of her hometown.
Eudora Welty died of pneumonia in Jackson, Mississippi, at the age of 92, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson.
Excerpted and adopted from Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 30, 2013
I began reading this book with The Ponder Heart, which I found to be a wonderful, outrageous tall tale of a small Southern town. It is narrated by an outspoken Edna Earl and peopled by many eccentrics, chief among them her Uncle Daniel I didn't really look on this a a realistic story but more of a tall tale built on a whimsical reality. A group of eccentrics--or perhaps more correctly a family of eccentrics led by Edna Earl and Uncle Daniel. Daniel appears to be somewhat simple, engages in odd marriages, and ultimately there is one of the strangest murder trials I've ever encountered in print.
Delta Wedding is a change of pace---the wedding of a 17 year old girl to her chosen beau, apparently to some surprise to family. The novel picks up with the arrival of a young relative coming to the wedding, looking forward to the hoop la. The family interactions occasionally recall those of The Ponder Heart without being so outrageous. Eccentricity among the Aunts--definitely. wildness among the children--for sure.
Where I find Welty really excels is in her descriptions of the natural world and her characters in it. The scenes from the train as Laura is traveling to town, night walks by the river, scenes of the family gathered outdoors after the wedding. So many beautiful scenes, starkly drawn vistas, scenes of the plantation.
Recommended
Delta Wedding is a change of pace---the wedding of a 17 year old girl to her chosen beau, apparently to some surprise to family. The novel picks up with the arrival of a young relative coming to the wedding, looking forward to the hoop la. The family interactions occasionally recall those of The Ponder Heart without being so outrageous. Eccentricity among the Aunts--definitely. wildness among the children--for sure.
Where I find Welty really excels is in her descriptions of the natural world and her characters in it. The scenes from the train as Laura is traveling to town, night walks by the river, scenes of the family gathered outdoors after the wedding. So many beautiful scenes, starkly drawn vistas, scenes of the plantation.
Recommended
July 15, 2013
Ponder Heart was the July choice for the On the Southern Literary Trail group. It was a wonderful, comic, very short novel narrated by Miss Edna Earle, about her Uncle Daniel Ponder, who was, shall we say, a very sweet man, but not all there. Short enough to be read in one sitting, it left me eager for more Eudora Welty, so I immediately started in on "Delta Wedding". What a jewel of a book! This story of a large Mississippi family about the preparations and the aftermath of a daughter's wedding was a delightful immersion into a large happy-go-lucky family. I come from a small family (1 brother) and only had 1 daughter of my own, so it was a great experience to be included in the Fairchild clan. It didn't hurt that they were wealthy and pretty much ran the town. Miss Welty did a great job of handling the chaotic daily surroundings along with the interior thoughts and feelings of some of the characters. I loved this book, and it will go on a re-read shelf for sure.
August 2, 2021
Well, my daughter had to read this for AP English Your Author and You project (YAY). Set in the 1920's there was so much she didn't understand that she read the entire book aloud to me so I could fill in the blanks. It was a matter of things no longer in our vocabulary; like setae, Studebaker, sideboard, and so on.
So I was tortured right along with my poor child. This book is a snap shot in time focused on a particular event, a southern wedding. There is not issue to be resolved, no great climax, not suspense, not overriding theme; just page after page of endless description that goes to the minutia and wears the reader into the ground. Never was I ecstatic as to hear "the end"; best two words in the entire book!.
So I was tortured right along with my poor child. This book is a snap shot in time focused on a particular event, a southern wedding. There is not issue to be resolved, no great climax, not suspense, not overriding theme; just page after page of endless description that goes to the minutia and wears the reader into the ground. Never was I ecstatic as to hear "the end"; best two words in the entire book!.
July 30, 2014
Thai is a wonderful short novel, full of humor and written in the language of a small-town Mississippi woman of a bygone era. Welty reminds me of Evelyn Waugh, but of course her characters are of an entirely different place and time. I wonder to what extent Welty exaggerates her characters; can it be that they are accurate portraits?
In the end, I found I could put such questions aside and just enjoy.
In the end, I found I could put such questions aside and just enjoy.
December 9, 2013
A couple hundred pages of "a week in the life of" a family in the Mississippi Delta. The story starts on "Monday" with the arrival of a niece and culminates on "Sunday" after the wedding of one of the daughters.
Lots of allusions, such as the red hair on Tory's fingers, that never are explained or resolved. A very slow book.
Lots of allusions, such as the red hair on Tory's fingers, that never are explained or resolved. A very slow book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 15, 2015
Pacing in this book is from a different age, slow, deep, intensely introspective. [American] Southern culture of the 1930's, family dynamics from the voice of an orphaned little girl who buoys up over the plot course of a few days. Downshift several gears and savor this.
Want to Read
December 4, 2016Read Ponder Heart, to-read Delta Wedding
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews