In the mid-1950’s, Jackson, Mississippi native, Eudora Welty, wrote to friend and literary agent, Henry Volkening, regarding her experiences lecturing at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom:

“Greetings and Pip Pip…. The people are all terribly nice, polite, kind…it is all pretty donnish- which doesn’t astonish me”

The author made several international trips during her lifetime, with Ireland being among her favorite destinations, as she disclosed in the showcased post-World War II letter sent to Mississippi author and relative, Hubert Creekmore. Welty caught the “travel bug” quite early, as the featured scrapbook kept by her best high-school friend noted, “I think I got about 1,000,000 of these [letters] from Eudora.” These “millions” of letters were those sent to her friends during her childhood trip to the American West with her father’s insurance company, Lamar Life.

This display also showcases the travel adventures of other Mississippi literary luminaries, such as Richard Wright who, after 1947, lived the rest of his life in France, a country he once described as having, "no race-tension or conflict…no social snobbery…life is accepted for what it is, the grim along with the beautiful."

Additionally, the legendary mid-twentieth century literary reviewer and Mississippian, Herschel Brickell, served as the Cultural Relations Officer of the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá, Columbia from 1941-1944. During his tenure, he delivered numerous lectures, later published in these featured pamphlets, which highlighted the works of American authors, including William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Theodore Dreiser, among others.

Featured in this display:

• Richard Wright

Paris Book News, Winter 1956. Includes a listing for a reception for Richard Wright on November 17th.

Invitation to reception in Paris for "La Puissance Noire" (Black Power), followed by a debate, at the Congrès pour la liberté de la Culture. 8 February 1955.

Black Boy (paperback edition) and invitation to reception at a bookstore where he would sign "his works", La Librairie Daphne Adeane. 25 January 1948.

Invitation to Harper Book Night at Kugler's Chestnut St. Restaurant (Philadelphia, Penn.) on 12 March 1946

Invitation to book signing by Richard Wright for Ecoute, homme blanc (White Man, Listen) at a bookstore, La Librairie L'Escalier. 26 June 1959.

• Eudora Welty

Letter from Eudora Welty to Henry Volkering, attending a Fulbright Conference in Cambridge, U.K.

Scrapbook. My Graduation Days

Collage of postmarks

Letter from Eudora Welty to Hubert Creekmore in London, U.K. in 1951: "Dear Hubert, you lecturer"

• Herschel Brickell

Panorama de la Historia de los Estados Unidos (Centro Colombo-Americano, 1945)

Transcript of lecture given on 20 February 1952, "Panorama de America"

Literatura contemporanea norteamericana; dos conferencias dictadas por el agregado cultural de la embajada de los Estados Unidos en Bogota / [edited by] Herschel Brickell. (Prensas de la biblioteca nacional, 1943 edition; Centro Colombo-Americano, 1944 edition)