Volume 48, Number 14 · September 20, 2001
On Eudora Welty (1909–2001)
By Hermione Lee
In an early story by Eudora Welty called 'The Hitch-Hikers' (1941), a man says: 'I come down from the hills.... We had us owls for chickens and fox for yard dogs but we sung true.' The phrase is quoted by Flannery O'Connor in an essay on the importance of using the idioms of people you hear around you for writing stories. O'Connor says: 'Now there is a whole book in that one sentence.' The sentence is spoken by one of two hitchhikers who have been picked up by a traveling salesman called Harris, as he drives toward Memphis one night. One of the hitchhikers has a guitar and it's he who speaks. He goes on to tell Harris a brief story of his childhood. Harris listens automati-cally—it's his habit. And what he happens to hear now is the story of this man's mother, who used to sing ballads:
Feature, 1440 words
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