Katherine Anne Porter (Twayne's United States Authors Series) [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

Bought this book at a library sale and though it was published in 1965 it is still helpful when trying to understand the writings, especially short stories, of Ms. Porter.

Much of the book is focused on her short story collections: Flowering Judas; Pale Horse, Pale Rider; and The Leaning Tree and other stories. As an author, or artist as she would prefer, she is generally remembered by critics as a top notch short story writer at the level of Henry James. Her only completed and published large novel is Ship of Fools.

Beginning work on this novel, at least 25 years passed before Ship of Fools saw print in 1961. Possibly the longer novel had its germination as early as the 1930s. Taking note of her struggles, many of her friends advised her to give up this longer novel and go on to other things. However, she was tenacious, and Katherine Anne Porter was determined. Finally by 1961 the novel was ready for print, and in that year she had "prepublication interviews in both Time and Newsweek" magazines. As she said at that time finally "finished the whole damn thing in six weeks.". By then Katherine Anne Porter was 68 years of age. Ship of Fools drew very mixed reviews, generally in Europe and specifically in Germany.

Accordingly, Ship of Fools takes up quite a bit of space in Professor Hendrick's book. Ship of Fools was a great commercial success and was "sold to United Artists for $400,000.00" at a time when many working folks earned only $4000.00 per year! In 1965, the Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter was published winning both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In 1970 the Collected Essays and Occasional Writings of Katherine Anne Porter was published by Delacorte Press. No new material appears from Katherine Anne Porter before the artist died on September 18th, 1980.

Since Professor Hendrick's book was published in 1965 none of the information in the last paragraph comes from Professor Hendrick's 1965 book. However, the reputation of Katherine Anne Porter will always rest on several short stories, essays, and her one large novel, Ship of Fools. When his book was published Professor Hendrick could not realize Ms. Porter's writing career had pretty much dried up. Katherine Anne Porter's published writing career effectively ended with the publication of Ship of Fools. She did, however, contribute to the screenplay for the movie, Ship of Fools.

I've always enjoyed reading this author/artist but also feel she did herself a great disservice by not being more productive. However, if one is familiar at all with "Callie" one realizes she could never be more than she was. So true with any one of us, as she said once she had had a hard life, but much of it was her own doing. I would also add: or undoing.

Several good biographies are available and The Library of America has issued a single volume of her writings. All mentioned books are at present still available from Amazon.

Hopefully, in the future, The Library of America will see its way to publish another volume containing Ship of Fools and her other non-fiction items as well. Professor Hendrick continually refers to a diary or journal the artist kept early in her writings. If, and that is a LARGE if, the thing still exists OR ever exited, those notes and writings could also be included. From her own conversations she said many times down through the years, she had destroyed, burned, etc. hundreds of her written work.

As Katherine Anne Porter also continually stated, to read her work is to know all there is to know of her. She had little use for an autobiography and maintained most of her writings are autobiographical. She felt that by reading her published work was to know her.

A very interesting, talented artist but one who somehow remains somewhat remote.