Hunter Cole Eudora Welty collection

The Hunter Cole Eudora Welty collection documents the literary life of Eudora Welty with a particular focus on the books published by the University Press of Mississippi. The collection contains correspondence, manuscripts, interviews, publicity and promotional materials, photographs, publications, audiovisual materials and other memorabilia.

Series 1, Correspondence, is a small group which includes mainly correspondence between Cole and others on Welty-related matters but also a number of letters from Welty to Cole and copies of some Welty letters.

The second series, Publications: Manuscripts, proofs, etc., focuses predominately on publications published by the University Press of Mississippi during Cole’s tenure whose subject is Welty or were written by Welty. Proofs of pages, jackets and illustrations along with unbound cases are included. Some pre-publication material referring to Welty’s book of photographs Country Churchyards is of interest.

Cole collected first editions of Welty’s books as well as publications which contained introductions or other writings by Welty, along with books about Welty and her corpus. Series 3, Publications: Books, features a variety of editions of Welty’s work, many of which are signed or inscribed by Welty.

Series 4, Publications: Articles, reviews, newsletters, is a large series because Cole tried to collect copies of as many articles by Welty or about Welty which were published in journals, magazines and newspapers from the 1940s to the late 2000s. These range from the scholarly to interviews given by Welty to reports on Welty’s activities in Jackson and thus give a good insight into Welty’s public life and her growing literary reputation Welty’s long connections with The New York Times Book Review and The New Yorker are illustrated in the series through book reviews and articles. Also included are copies of newsletters by organizations dedicated to promoting and commemorating Welty.

The fifth series, Publicity and promotion, contains posters and promotional materials publicizing Welty’s works and plays based on them, and exhibits and conferences about Welty. These include materials and catalogs produced by the University Press of Mississippi, materials related to the exhibit Passionate Observer: Eudora Welty Among Artists of the Thirties, and brochures promoting the Eudora Welty House.

Series 6, Miscellany, is an eclectic group of memorabilia and ephemera collected by Cole which includes programs, invitations, brochures, and commemorative items. There are transcripts of television appearances by Welty on William F. Buckley's Firing Line and the MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour, along with some items about her friend William Maxwell and a few genealogical documents.

Cole not only collected images of Welty but took photographs of her. The seventh series, Visual Images, contains photographic prints, photocopies and published images which he collected in a binder. Notable items are a limited edition print of a drawing of Welty’s house by Michael W. Hataway, and an illustration by Mildred Nungester Wolfe which was included in the 1988 edition of Morgana: Two Stories from ‘The Golden Apples’.

The final series is audiovisual materials, both published and recorded by Cole. The audio cassettes include readings by Welty and an interview with Dick Cavett. The reel-to-reel tape is a recording of a symposium held at Millsaps College in 1960 when Cole was still a student there, while the video tapes are interviews of Welty conducted by Cole and others.