An American author whose name has been associated with one of the world's most popular e-mail programs, has died in Mississippi.
Eudora Welty, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Optimist's Daughter" died of pneumonia on Monday. She was 92.
Welty, who made her mark on American literature with short stories and novels set mainly in Mississippi, had been in hospital briefly in her hometown, Jackson.
Her recurring emphasis on inner lives of her characters and the mystery of human relationships brought her favorable comparisons with Virginia Woolf. Another dominant theme in Welty's writing is time, particularly as it illustrates human mortality against the backdrop of an overwhelmingly important past.
Steve Dorner, who created the well-known Eudora e-mail program in the late 1980s, named his software in honour of Eudora Welty's short story "Why I live at the Post Office."
It's a story about a woman who decides to live at the post office where she works rather than put up with her family at home any longer.
Dorner said he was processing so much e-mail at the time that he felt like he lived at the post office, and his program used a "post office" protocol to fetch mail, so he saw a metaphorical connection.
He says Ms Welty was flattered and amused by the allusion to her and her work.
Pulitzer-winning author was familiar name to e-mail users
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.