The late Floyd Sulser spent 40 years building a rare collection of work by Eudora Welty, an American short-story writer, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, photographer and Mississippian. Now, scholars and fans can enjoy the works at the University of Mississippi’s J.D. Williams Library.
The Ole Miss alumnus, retired attorney and lumberman from Ridgeland gifted his Welty Collection, valued at $184,000, to the library’s Department of Archives and Special Collections. The collection includes first editions and all 36 items listed in Noel Polk’s “Eudora Welty: A Bibliography of Her Work,” plus other materials including her high school annual that the author signed for Sulser.
“It was fun to have a literary hobby,” Sulser said before his death in November 2024. “I met Eudora a number of times – such a fine lady. People would leave her books on her front porch, and she would sign them and put them back on the porch.
“I absolutely enjoy the literary community. The problem is I’ve bought too many books!”
The last item added to the collection was the complete “Eudora Welty: Twenty Photographs,” which was published by Palaemon Press Limited in 1980. It is rare because people often pulled out single photos from the collection to sell.
“It was a big deal to me to fulfill my collection,” said Sulser, who purchased the “Twenty Photographs” at Rare Square Books in Oxford. “I had been working on this collection for many years. Whenever I traveled out of town, the first place I would go is to a bookstore.”
Jennifer Ford, UM library professor and senior curator of manuscripts, is processing the Welty Collection so it can be more accessible for patrons. She and library officials are planning a future exhibition featuring the materials.
“The literary value of such an extraordinary collection, built over time, is incalculable for scholars and Welty enthusiasts,” Ford said. “The Department of Archives and Special Collections is extremely grateful to Mr. Sulser, as well as to his family, for such an outstanding donation and for their ongoing support.”
To further complement the Welty Collection gift, Sulser’s daughters – Lauren Sulser Benner, of Jackson, and Kristen Sulser Guinn, of Ridgeland – are collaborating with the University Press of Mississippi for the “Critical Perspectives on Eudora Welty” series to honor their dad. The ongoing series celebrates and preserves the author’s legacy through scholarship and explores new issues in Welty studies.
The fifth book in the series, “To Absent Friends: Eudora Welty’s Correspondence with Frank Lyell,” is set to be released in October.
“Our dad felt it was important to recognize Ms. Welty’s contributions to Mississippi and the literary community,” Guinn said. “The University Press of Mississippi series strives for just that – to ensure and protect her legacy.
“My sister and I wanted to honor our dad’s life and love for the written word with this book series. I hope our gift will inspire more gifts to the Special Collections at Ole Miss and to UPM.”
Guinn said her father was very pleased to know the collection would be preserved at the university.
“I think he loved the idea of sharing all the Welty items with the world, and he certainly enjoyed curating it,” she said.
This isn’t the first time the family has supported Ole Miss. Sulser and his daughters established the Floyd Sulser Family Scholarship Endowment in 2019 and made a second gift to the fund in 2021. The endowment is designed to encourage and assist full-time business majors who plan to attend law school.
Sulser earned a bachelor’s degree in 1968 and a Juris Doctor in 1971, both from UM. Guinn and her husband, Matthew, met as English graduate students on the Oxford campus. Benner and her husband, Frank, saw their two sons recently graduate from Ole Miss.
“Our family has a real love for the university and Oxford,” Guinn said.
After his time at Ole Miss, where Sulser was a member of the tennis team, he served as a captain in the Army’s JAGC from 1971 to 1974, graduating from the University of Virginia’s School of Military Science and acting as summary court-martial judge at Fort Story. After military posts in Alabama and Virginia, the family returned to Jackson.
Sulser was a founding member of the Bennett Lotterhos Sulser & Wilson law firm in Jackson. His legal career focused on business and environmental law, as well as creditors’ rights and bankruptcy litigation. He eventually served Of Counsel for the law firm and joined Southern Lumber Co., retiring in 2015.
He was president of the board of directors of the Mississippi Lumber Manufacturers’ Association and of the Mississippi Food Network. He was a trustee of St. Dominic’s Health Services Foundation and a board member of Canopy Children’s Solutions and Friends of the J.D. Williams Library at Ole Miss. Sulser also was a member of the Hard Times Literary Society and Drinking Club.
A lifelong Episcopalian, he filled many roles in church leadership at St. Columb’s in Ridgeland, including lay eucharistic minister and member of the vestry. Besides his daughters, sons-in-law and grandchildren, Sulser is survived by his wife, Regina “Bean” Sulser.