Rare
Book Info:
Delta Wedding: a Novel by Eudora Welty
RARE PS 3545. E6 D44- 1946
Delta Wedding from the rare
book collection at the University of Mary Washington is a first edition book.
The book is signed by the author. The book contains a signed message and the
message inscribed is “With Good Wishes to Edward Naumburg [a member of the
Grolier Club] – Eudora Welty.” The original cost of the book was $2.75 and
the book is covered with a “fine jacket (with minor edge wear) and the University
paid $383 for the book during the 1989-1990 academic school year. The book Delta
Wedding is in wonderful condition, but the pages are starting to turn
yellow. The pages seem to be done from wood pulp paper because the book was
made in 1946 after World War II and after the war wood pulp was commonly used.
Delta Wedding was published in 1946 by
Harcourt, Brace and Co., in New York. “Delta Wedding
only contains pages 3-247. The book does not contain a forward author,
bibliography, or introduction. The novel starts on page 3 and the title page is
on page 1, but pages 1 and 2 or not labeled in the book. Delta Wedding
also does not contain any roman numbers. The book was published in English in
1946 and the novel is fiction.” The copy right of the novel belonged to
Eudora Welty.
Delta Wedding has seven chapters
which are labeled by roman numbers at the top of each chapter. The book does
not contain a table of content. Each of the chapters has different sections
number 1-9. Chapter I has 2 sections, Chapter II has 2 sections, Chapter
III has 6 sections, Chapter IV has 2 sections, Chapter V has 9 sections,
Chapter VI has 4 sections, and Chapter VII had only 2 sections.
Information from Welty, Eudora. Delta
Wedding. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1946.
Gaskell tells “in 1900 more than 99 per cent of paper was machine
made” (Gaskell 228). Delta Wedding was published in 1946 making
the book a product of the “Machine- press Period” (Gaskell 228). The
binding on Delta Wedding is a modern binding. “The process of
using rubber solution was abandoned from about 1870 until the middle of the
twentieth century when it was revived, with a more durable plastic coating for
the backs of leaves, as the familiar (and to librarians deplorable) the
ermoplistic binding of modern paperbacks” (Gaskell 234).Delta Wedding represents the start of a
change in book binding that has been continued till today.
Delta Wedding has a leaf slip
cover as decoration because the outside cover of the book is not decorated,
except with the title being on the binding of the book along with the author’s
name. The author’s name is first on the binding and the title of the book comes
second. The book looks to have been “rounded and backed and then placed in
the board into the paper hallow” (Gaskell). The book looks to have been
done by what Gaskell calls the “Mechanical Composition and Type from
1875-1950″ (Gaskell 274). The book is in very good condition, but the
pages are starting to turn a little yellow.
Information used was from Gaskell, Philip. A New Introduction to
Bibliography. Oxford University: Oxford University Press, 1972.
Eudora Welty
1909-2001
Eudora
Welty was born on “April 13, 1901, in Jackson Mississippi. Welty died of
pneumonia in July 23, 2001 in Jackson, Mississippi. Welty’s parents were
Christian Webb (an insurance company president) and Chestina (Andrews)
Welty” (Gale). Eudora Welty had the oppurnity to recieve a wonderful
education. She “attended Mississippi State College for Women (now
Mississippi University for Women) from 1926-27 and she recieved her B.A., in
1929 from the University of Wisconsion. Welty also attended Columbia University
Graduate School of Business from 1930-31″ (Gale).
During her career Welty accomplished many things that other writer is her time
period we also doing. she started her career by “working for newspapers
and radio stations in Mississippi during the early depresssion years and also
worked as a publicity agent for the state office of Work Progress
Administration (WPA). Welty was also brifly a member of the New York Times Book
Reviewstaf, in New York, NY and an honorary consultant in American Letters,
Library of congress beginning in 1958″ (Gale). Welty’s wrl changed the
world of literature.
Eudora Welty’s work “marked by a subtle, lyrical narrative state, Welty’s
work tipically explores the intricacies of the interior life and small herisms
of ordinary people. Welty choose to write about the lives if the people she
encountered during her life and writing in the styles of folk materials,
interrelationships of everyday Mississippi life, and romance” (Gale). Delta
Wedding “was Welty’s first novel and marks a significant change in her
focus of writing from dreamlike atmosphere to life in the Mississippi
Delta. Delta Wedding looks back at the pastoral world of the plantation
in the South” (Gale).
Eudora Welty “was perhaps the most ‘honoraried’ writer in the history of
American letters” (Maris xi). Welty has recieved many honors and awards
during her life time. Here are but a few of her wonderful accomplishments.
Accomplishments: (All of information
for accomplishments found in Academic Search Complete by the University of Mary
Washington Website from Mississippi Quarterly; Apr2009 Supplement, Vol. 62
Issue 3, p229-232, 4p).
-”From 1920-1951 Welty
won many on The O. Henry Awars and Best American Short Stories” (Academic
Search Complete).
-”1952 Welty was elected to the
National Institute of Arts and Letters” (Academic Search Complete).
-”1958 Honorary Consultant to
Library of Congress” (Academic Search Complete).
-”1973 Pulitzer prize for
Fiction for The Optimist’s Daughter” (Academic Search Complete).
-”1980 Medal of Freedom given
by Jimmy Carter” (Academic Search Complete).
-”1981 Medal of Excellence from
Mississippi University for Women” (Academic Search Complete).
Eudora Welty during her lifetime won many awards for the literature she
produced. Welty was not awarded for her first novel Delta Wedding in
1946. However, Welty is an author who changed the world of literature and her
books should not be forgotten.
Information for this section was found from “Eudora Welty.”
Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Literature Resources from
Gale. Web. 13 Oct. 2011.
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CH1000104864&v=2.1&u=viva_mwc&it=r&p=LitRG&sw=w
Marris, Susanne. Eudora Welty. Introduction. Orlando, Flordia; Harcourt,
INC., 2005.
Academic Search Complete by the
University of Mary Washington Website. Mississippi
Quarterly;
Apr2009 Supplement, Vol. 62 Issue 3, p229-232, 4p).
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Delta Wedding has no illustrator. Delta Wedding does have
a jacket design and endpapers by Charles Alston.
Information from Welty, Eudora. Delta Wedding. New York: Harcourt,
Brace and Co., 1946.
Harcourt, Brace & Company
383 Madison Avenue, New York 17
The publishing company that produced Delta Wedding has gone through many
changed since it began. Here is the histroy of Harcourt, Brace & Company.
Harcourt Brace and Howe “was lawnched on 29 Jly in 1919 at 1 West
Forty-Seventh street New York after Alfred Harcount and Donald Brace lefy Henry
Holt and Company to found their own firm. Harcount had been in the editorial
and trade sales departments and brace had worked in the book planning and manufacturing.
The Firm had a third partner Will D. Howe, head of the Indiana University
English Department, who took the company into the textbook publishing”
(Gale).
The
companies first best seller was “Lewis’s Main Street (1920) and in 1928 Harcourt,
Brace became American publishers for Pegasus Press of Paors, which publishes
fine books on art. Harcount resigned as president of the company in 1942, Brace
served as president until 1948, and William Jovanovich, who joined the test
department in 1947, became President at the end of 1954 at the age of
thirty-four” (Gale). Delta Wedding was published while Brace served
as president of the company in 1946.
The publishing house seems to have been successful, however, “under Jovanovich
the house entered its period of greatest growth and expansion. In 1960
Harcourt, Brace merged with Tests and changed its imprint to Harcourt, Brace
and World. The company was also renamed in 1970 to Harcourt Brace Jovanovich”
(Gale). The company today is named Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. They published
Welty’s work because the company was branching out into new genres during the
early 1930s and that allowed for the company to take on Welty’s novel in 1946.
When Delta
Wedding was being published through the company the company was not going
through its growth period, but it was change of machine printing that Delta
Wedding was made in.
Information for this section was
found in
Literature Resources from Gale
Dzwonkoski, Elizabeth. “Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; Harcourt, Brace and
World; Harcourt, Brace and Company; Harcourt, Brace and Howe.” American
Literary Publishing Houses, 1900-1980: Trade and Paperback. Ed. Peter Dzwonkoski.
Detroit:
12:09 PM
Document
URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CH1220000422&v=2.1&u=viva_mwc&it=r&p=LitRG&sw=w
Delta Wedding was first printed as a hard back book in 1946. Since
1946 Delta Wedding has gone from being a book to being on CD.
WorldCat Database through the library at the University of Mary
Washington shows that “Delta Wedding published by
Harcourt, Brace and co., 1946 is located in 1, 676 libraries world wide. In San
Diego the publishing of the novel by Harcort Brace Jovanovich in 1991 &
1946 can be found in 538 libraries, The cassette tape recording of Delta
Wedding published by Recorded Books in Prince Frederick, MD in 1994
can be found in 282 libraries, and the compact disk by Recorded Books, Prince
Frederick MD, 1994 is in 158 libraries” (WorldCat).
WorldCat shows how Wetly’s novel has been
reprinted and made by many different companies throughout the years. WorldCat
also proves that Eudora Welty’s literature has not been forgotten in the
literary world and has moved from being a printed book to being a
recorded book on CD and tape. However, through the research I have done Delta
Wedding has not been made into a book for e-readers as of yet. That
may be a sign that Welty’s novel has been forgotten by the new technology
generation.
Today a regular copy Delta Wedding
can be found for $11.50 by Amazon.com, new for 17cents, used for 1cent, and a
collectable for $5.oo. A kindle edition of the book is going for 9.52 on
Amazon.com. However a rare first edition signed copy is going for $531.84 on
Amazon.com. The price of the rare signed editions of Delta Wedding has gone up in price over the years because the book
has turned into a collector’s item.
The University of Mary Washington has two copies of Delta
Wedding by Eudora Welty. One is the book I am researching a first
edition and the second book is in the stacks and is a later reprint. Welty’s
work is common and a reprint can be found in many libraries from looking at
WorldCat. However it seems that a person would have to search for Delta
Wedding because it is not as common as other literary works. Delta Wedding is significant to history
because the book is a piece of twenty century literature and the book displays
not only the tradition of novels, but the change in how books were made in the
1940s.
Information for this section is from WorldCat. University of Mary
Washington’s Library Datebase Online. “Delta Wedding“.
Literature Resources from WorlCat. Web 12 Oct. 2011.
amazon.com
BIB
Academic Search Complete. University
of Mary Washington Website. (Mississippi Quarterly;
Apr2009 Supplement, Vol. 62 Issue 3, p229-232, 4p). accessed October 12, 2011.
Amazon.com
Gale. Dzwonkoski, Elizabeth.
“Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; Harcourt, Brace and World;
Harcourt, Brace and Company; Harcourt, Brace and Howe.” American Literary
Publishing Houses, 1900-1980: Trade and Paperback. Ed. Peter Dzwonkoski.
Detroit: 12:09pm
Gale.”Eudora Welty.”
Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Literature
Resources from Gale. Web. 13 Oct. 2011.
Gaskell, Philip. A New
Introduction to Bibliography. Oxford University: Oxford
University
Press, 1972.
Marris, Susanne. Eudora Welty.
Introduction. Orlando, Flordia; Harcourt, INC., 2005.
Welty, Eudora. Delta Wedding. New
York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1946.
WorldCat. University of Mary
Washinton Library Datebase Online. “Delta Wedding“.
Literature Resources from WorlCar. Web 12 Oct. 2011.
I pledge.
Jamie Waite.
Proposed Image was taken by Jamie Waite on October
12, 2011. The Image is of the book Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty.
