Flowering Judas Was Published in 1930 by Hound and Horn Publishers in Limited Edition

Study Guide: Katherine Anne Porter

Kelly and Elizabeth C.

Callie Russell Porter was born in Indian Creek, Texas, on May 15, 1890. She lost her mother at the age of two, which caused her to become self-reliant at an early age. After her mother’s death she was raised primarily by her paternal grandmother, Catherine Anne Porter. After her grandmother's death, the family lived in several towns in Texas and Louisiana and she was enrolled in free schools wherever the family was living. In 1904, she studied for a year at the Thomas School, a private Methodist school in Texas, which became her only formal education beyond grammar school. At age fifteen she married John Henry Koontz, who was the first of four husbands. The Koontz family was Roman Catholic and Porter converted during this marriage. John was physically abusive throughout their relationship, and in 1914 she ran away to Chicago and worked briefly as an extra in movies. In 1915, she divorced her husband and as part of her divorce decree she changed her name to Katherine Anne Porter. In 1917, she began writing for the Fort Worth Critic, criticizing dramas and writing society gossip. In 1918, she wrote for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado, and while she was there she almost died of influenza. This sickness became inspiration for her later story Pale Horse, Pale Rider. Her success as a journalist spurned her to move to New York in 1919; where she made a living ghost writing for children’s stories and doing publicity work for a motion picture company. In the 20’s she traveled between New York and Mexico working as a journalist. During her time in Mexico she became acquainted with the leftist movement and also became disillusioned about religion. After Mexico she married Ernest Stock but they divorced a year later. From 1933 to 1936, she lived in Berlin, Basel, and Paris on a Guggenheim fellowship. When she was in Europe she married Eugene Pressley, who was 13 years younger than she and a writer. They divorced as well and she then married Albert Russell Erskine, Jr., who was 20 years her junior. They also divorced, but she did not marry again. Throughout her marriages she remained childless, but did have several miscarriages and stillbirths; she eventually had a hysterectomy. In 1939, Porter received national acclaim for her book Pale Horse, Pale Rider, and she was nominated for the first award given by the Texas Institute of Letters. After Europe Porter returned to the United States and lived in Pennsylvania, New York, New Orleans, Houston, and Baton Rouge. From 1948 to 1958, Porter taught at Stanford, the University of Michigan, the University of Liège, Belgium, Washington and Lee University, and the University of Texas. In 1966, Porter was appointed to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Porter finally settled in College Park, Maryland, and died in 1980 in a nursing home. She donated her papers to the University of Maryland, which houses her library and other belongings.

Flowering Judas was published in 1930 by Hound and Horn Publishers in limited edition. Only 600 copies of the text were printed. Flowering Judas is a story about Laura, an American expatriate in Mexico. The story involves modernist themes of alienation and lost faith and also incorporates religious symbols. The story was praised by reviewers and Yvor Winters said, “I can think of no living American who has written short stories at once so fine in detail, so powerful as units, and so mature and intelligent in outlook except [William Carlos] Williams.” As a result of this publication, Porter received the Guggenheim fellowship in 1931. In 1935, Porter was able to add four stories to Flowering Judas for her collection Flowering Judas and Other Stories. The collection as a whole was received positively although one story, “Hacienda,” was the most frequently called a disappointment.

Noon Wine, a short novel was published on limited edition but was initially not well received. The novel has been described as a “Greek tragedy set on a South Texas farm” in 1900. Edith Walton in the New York Times Book Review said the themes were unclear and not credible. In 1939, the novel appeared in Pale Horse, Pale Rider: Three Short Novels and in the collection, the story was rarely criticized. The story joined Old Mortality which is a coming of age story about a girl named Miranda and Pale Horse, Pale Rider which was about Miranda, as an adult, set during WWI when she falls in love with a soldier named Adam. The collection was widely praised and Noon Wine was often considered equal to the other two stories because of the thematic context which existed in all three.

In 1944, The Leaning Tower and Other Stories was published. American readers gave the book positive reviews. Diana Trilling and Irving Kristol called the collection the best of Porter’s three collections. British reviews were mixed. Charles Morgan in the London Sunday Times said that Porter had an, “Unwillingness to commit herself to the full hazards of storytelling.”

On April Fool’s Day in 1962, Porter’s first and only novel Ship of Fools was published. The novel tells of a German passenger ship returning to Germany from Mexico. The novel portrays most Germans as severely anti-Semitic, but also provides a very negative portrayal of the only Jewish passenger on board. The novel was predominately praised but was also called deeply depressing. Some reviewers debated the harshness of the negativity in the book. In England and Germany the book outraged readers and reviewers even before it was published.

The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter was published in 1965. In 1966, she won both the Pulitzer and the National Book Award for this piece, which was an anthology of nineteen short stories and novellas.

Porter also wrote many non fiction essays. In 1952, The Days Before, which was a collection of literature reviews and essays, was published. In 1970, The Collected Essays and Occasional Essays of Katherine Ann Porter was published and included a section of poetry. In the 1990s Letters by Katherine Anne Porter and “This Strange Old World” and Other Book Reviews were published.

Major Works:

Fiction

Flowering Judas (1930)

Flowering Judas and Other Stories (1935)

Pale Horse, Pale Rider: Three Short Novels (1939)

The Leaning Tower and Other Stories (1944)

Ship of Fools (1962)

The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (1964)

Nonfiction

The Days Before (1952)

The Collected Essays and Occasional Writings of Katherine Anne Porter (1970)

Letters by Katherine Anne Porter edited by Isabel Bayley (1990)

“This Strange, Old World” and Other Book Reviews by Katherine Anne Porter edited by Darlene Harbour Unrue (1991)

Uncollected Early Prose of Katherine Anne Porter edited by Ruth Moore Alvarez and Thomas F. Walsh (1993)

Katherine Anne Porter’s Poetry edited by Darlene Unrue(1996)

Criticism

The Fiction and Criticism of Katherine Anne Porter by Harry John Mooney Jr. (1957)

Katherine Anne Porter and the Art of Rejection by William F. Nance (1963)

Katherine Anne Porter: A Critical Symposium by Lodwick Hartley and George Core (1969)

Katherine Anne Porter by Ray B. West Jr. (1947)

Katherine Anne Porter: A Collection of Critical Essays by Robert Penn Warren (1979)

Bibliographies:

Selected and Critical Bibliography of the Uncollected Works of Katherine Anne Porter by William A. Sylvester (1947)

Katherine Anne Porter: A Critical Biography by Edward Schwartz (1952)

Katherine Anne Porter and Carson McCullers: A Reference Guide by Louise Waldrip and Shirley Ann Bauer (1974)

Katherine Anne Porter: An Annotated Bibliography by Kathryn Hilt and Ruth M. Alvarez (1988).

Works Cited:

William Bedford. "Katherine Anne Porter: The Life of an Artist.(Book review)." The Mississippi Quarterly 58.3-4 (Summer-Fall 2005): 827(3). Academic OneFile. Gale. University of Mary Washington. 20 Mar. 2008 <http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do ?prodId=AONE

GRAHAM, DON. "Katherine Anne Porter's Journey from Texas to the World." Southwest Review 84.1 (Winter 1998): 140(1). Academic OneFile. Gale. University of Mary Washington. 20 Mar. 2008 <http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodId=AONE>.

Anne Morris, "$600,000 donated to center for writers," Austin American-Statesman, Sept. 1, 1999, pp. B1, B5. Joan Givner, "PORTER, KATHERINE ANN." The Handbook of Texas Online. <http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/

Katherine Anne Porter Quotes, 21 Mar. 2008, <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors /k/katherine_anne_porter.html>

Unrue, Darlene. Critical Essays on Katherine Anne Porter. New York: G.K. Hall & Co, 1977.

Himmelwright, Catherine. "Crossing over: Katherine Anne Porter's 'Pale Horse, Pale Rider' as urban Western.(Critical essay)." The Mississippi Quarterly 58.3-4 (Summer-Fall 2005): 719(18). Academic OneFile. Gale. University of Mary Washington. 26 Mar. 2008
<http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodId=AONE>.

Stout, Janis P. "'Practically dead with fine rivalry': the leaning towers of Katherine Anne Porter and Glenway Wescott." Studies in the Novel 33.4 (Winter 2001): 444(15). Academic OneFile. Gale. University of Mary Washington. 26 Mar. 2008
<http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodId=AONE>.