Louisiana family donates Welty collection to MUW

Published 5:19 pm Friday, October 23, 2009

COLUMBUS (AP) — A collection of about 270 items by or about Eudora Welty has been donated to Mississippi University for Women.

The donation of correspondence, books, periodicals, recordings and photographs came from Andy Murray Coffey of Lafayette, La., and his family.

The collection will be housed in Fant Memorial Library.

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Coffey tells the Commercial Dispatch in Columbus that he gave the collection to MUW because Welty had attended the school and was its most famous alumnae.

Coffey says he obtained the collection from a book dealer in Beverly Hills, Calif., about 20 years ago.

The presentation of the collection coincided with the MUW’s annual Eudora Welty Writers’ Symposium, a weekend of events that attracts authors, scholars and artists. The symposium ends Saturday.