Books and Authors

On Monday, March 22, 2004, Mrs. Laura Bush hosted the fourth installment in a series of White House symposia celebrating great American literature. The latest White House Salute to America's Authors, features the lives and works of Truman Capote, Flannery O'Connor, and Eudora Welty. The program explores and celebrates the legacy of these important writers of classic American stories through literary discussions, music, and dramatic readings.

"These American voices resonate throughout our country and through the ages," said Mrs. Bush. "From their traditional storytelling in unique voices to their often groundbreaking nonfiction and essays, these authors have given us literary treasures to be read and reread for generations to come. I'm delighted to have their voices heard, their stories told, and their lives celebrated as part of the White House Salute to America's Authors."

Mrs. Bush invited nationally acclaimed poet and chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, Dana Gioia, to lead a panel of contemporary authors, Tom Wolfe, Bret Lott, and Elizabeth Spencer, in a discussion about the lives and work of Mr. Capote, Ms. O'Connor, and Ms. Welty.

Truman Capote (1924-1984) was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. His first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, was an international literary success when published in 1948. Mr. Capote continued to receive acclaim with A Tree of Night (1949), The Grass Harp (1951), and Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958), which was made into an award-winning film starring Audrey Hepburn. He is widely known for developing the nonfiction novel -- a genre of writing that adapts true-life stories into the novel form -- with In Cold Blood (1965).

Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964) was born in Savannah, Georgia, and lived for most of her life on the family dairy farm in the small Georgia town of Milledgeville. Diagnosed with lupus in 1950, she was able to lecture throughout the United States while the disease was in remission. Ms. O'Connor's published work includes two short novels, Wise Blood (1952) and The Violent Bear It Away (1960), and two collections of short stories, A Good Man Is Hard to Find (1955) and Everything That Rises Must Converge (1965). Her Collected Works was published in 1988.

Eudora Welty (1901-2001) was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and attended college in Mississippi, Wisconsin, and New York. She joined the Works Progress Administration as publicity agent and documented Mississippians in more than 1,200 photographs. Ms. Welty's first book of stories, A Curtain of Green, appeared in 1941, followed quickly by The Robber Bridegroom (1942) and The Wide Net (1943). She produced three more short fiction collections, including The Ponder Heart (1954). Ms. Welty also published three novels, Delta Wedding (1946), Losing Battles (1970), and The Optimist's Daughter (1972), the last of which won the Pulitzer Prize. Her autobiography, One Writer's Beginnings (1984), is considered a literary classic.

Tom Wolfe, author of such critically acclaimed fiction as A Man in Full and Bonfire of the Vanities, as well as the definitive history of the birth of America's manned space program, The Right Stuff, will discuss the writings of Truman Capote.

Elizabeth Spencer, best known for her collections of short stories and her novella A Light in the Piazza, will discuss the work of Eudora Welty.

Bret Lott, author, writer-in-residence and professor of English at the College of Charleston, will discuss the work of Flannery O'Connor. Mr. Lott will become editor of the Southern Review at Louisiana State University in fall 2004.

The program also included dramatic readings by Noel True, Edward Gero, and Felicia Knight, and musical performances by Eric Reed and Paula West.

The White House Salute to America's Authors series was created by Mrs. Bush to honor some of the most significant contributors to American literature. The series brings together writers, scholars, artists, and high school students to gain new insights into the nation's important writers. The Library of Congress provides displays of first editions by the selected authors, as well as photographs and other relevant artifacts.

The inaugural symposium, held in November of 2001, celebrated the quintessential American author, Mark Twain. The second, held in March of 2002, focused on the writers of the Harlem Renaissance, including Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Zora Neale Hurston. In September of 2002, the series celebrated three women of the American West: Willa Cather, Edna Ferber, and Laura Ingalls Wilder.