And sings louder than all the rest put together, so loud it would make you lose your place. She sings in the choir of the Baptist Church every blessed Sunday couldn’t get her out. Miss Teacake Magee lived here all her life. I used to dread he might get hold of one of these occasional travelers that wouldn’t come in unless they had to-the kind that would break in on a story with a set of questions, and wind it up with a list of what Uncle Daniel’s faults were: some Yankee. I am certain that its long-term popularity is down to Miss Edna Earle Ponder and her absolutely amazing narrative voice: The reason this novella marches on, I think, is that it is the perfect length and in the precise emotional register for Miss Eudora Welty's powers to come full bore on it. Like 2001 itself, it was no patch on 1953, or 1956. How I wish I had been there, that I'd seen it in that form.I was, obviously, unable to attend the 1956 Broadway performance of the play adapted from this book (being still as yet unborn) but I certainly saw the PBS Masterpiece Theater production with Peter MacNicol and JoBeth Williams as Uncle Daniel and Edna Earle Ponder. My Review: This magical moment of Southern history was first published in The New Yorker magazine, with the whimsically funny line drawings in my Kindle edition, in 1953. THIS IS MY ENTRY INTO THE 1954 CLUB.reviews of books published in 1954. “The most revered figure in contemporary American letters,” said the New York Times of Eudora Welty, which also hailed The Ponder Heart-a winner of the William Dean Howells Medal which was adapted into both a 1956 Broadway play and a 2001 PBS Masterpiece series-as “Miss Welty at her comic, compassionate best.” And the loose-tongued Edna Earle will tell you all about it. His niece, Edna Earle, has a solution to save the Ponder fortune from Daniel’s mortifying philanthropy: As much as she loves Daniel, she’s decided to have him institutionalized.įoolproof as the plan may seem, it comes with a kink-one that sets in motion a runaway scheme of mistaken identity, a hapless local widow, a reckless wedding, a dim-witted teenage bride, and a twist of dumb luck that lands this once-respectable Southern family in court to brave an embarrassing trial for murder. To friends and strangers, he’s also the most generous, having given away heirlooms, a watch, and so far, at least one family business. The Publisher Says: Daniel Ponder is the amiable heir to the wealthiest family in Clay County, Mississippi. Mariner Books ( non-affiliate Amazon link, since the publisher's website is not responding)
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