In celebration, this book marks the occasion by reprinting "Death of a Traveling Salesman, " her first published story. It set the tone and established the high artistry of distinguished work that was to follow it over the course of more than half a century. It appeared in a little magazine called Manuscript in 1936 as the astonishingly mature work of a young writer. Welty was 27.

Included here is an essay she wrote at the request of The Georgia Review. It is her reflection over her long career and a new look into her first piece of fiction to appear before the public eye. Included also are three black-and-white photographs taken by Welty in the 1930s. These show the setting of the story, rural Mississippi of the Depression years.