Eudora Welty, for nearly forty years the first lady of southern letters, has recreated most memorably in her short stories and novels the voices and the personalities of her fellow Mississippians and southerners. What more fitting tribute could the Center for the Study of Southern Culture pay to one already honored in so many ways—by her readers and her colleagues, by critics and scholars—than to inaugurate its programs by inviting these admirers to meet with Miss Welty and celebrate her achievements? The Eudora Welty Symposium brought together on the University of Mississippi campus in November 1977 more than 800 persons from thirty-two states and three foreign countries. The papers presented at the symposium, exploring topics ranging from serious appraisals of her writings to lighter comments about Miss Welty as a friend, comprise the contents of Eudora Welty: A Form of Thanks.