JACKSON (Reuters) - Eudora Welty, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of ``The Optimist's Daughter'' whose emphasis on the inner life and the pervading mystery of human relationships made her one of America's most celebrated writers, died on Monday. She was 92.
Welty, who made her mark on American literature with short stories and novels set mainly in Mississippi, had been hospitalized briefly in her hometown, Jackson, Mississippi, for treatment of pneumonia, a hospital spokeswoman said. ``Ms. Welty passed away at 12:25 p.m. (1:25 p.m. EDT) of cardio pulmonary arrest secondary to pneumonia,'' said Kim Neely, a spokeswoman at Baptist Medical Center in Jackson.
Born on April 13, 1909, Welty grew up in Jackson and attended the Mississippi State College for Women before graduating from the University of Wisconsin in 1929.
She also studied advertising at the Columbia University School of Business but had lived in Jackson since 1931, with the exception of a six-month stint on the staff of The New York Times Book Review. Welty never married, telling the New York Times in an interview that marriage ``never came up.''
``The Optimist's Daughter,'' her Pulitzer winner, was a tale about the inner ordeal of a woman whose widowed father marries someone much younger than herself and crowned a long and vibrant literary career that began during the Great Depression. She also received the American Book Award for fiction.
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