Eudora Welty House

Living room (3 of 3)

All of the art in the house was acquired by Eudora Welty. Over the mantel in the living room is a painting, Rome, by Agnes Sims. In a small photograph propped on the mantel, Diarmuid Russell, her friend and agent for many years, leans down to admire a flower. A portrait of Welty as a young woman, painted in 1946 by Marcella Comes, a prominent Washington, D.C., artist, hangs on the north wall. This portrait is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.
Here Welty met interviewers and reporters and entertained friends from around the world—Elizabeth Bowen, Robert Penn Warren, Katherine Anne Porter, Gore Vidal, and other noted writers.
The family gathered in the living room on holidays, notably for a traditional Christmas morning open house, featuring eggnog and good cheer.
In this room, in the 1930s, Welty gave a dance, with music provided by a rented jukebox. And here in 1973 Welty welcomed many friends who traveled to Jackson for Mississippi's Eudora Welty Day.
Collected objects here reveal Welty's lifelong love of travel. She visited most of America's great cities and lived briefly in New York City and San Francisco. She had long stays in Paris, London, and Dublin and traveled in the countryside of Mexico, England, Ireland, Italy, and France. A poster of Dublin hangs in the foyer. Three Staffordshire figurines are displayed in the living room. The figurine of Shakespeare is from New Orleans, one of Welty's favorite places.

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