“Human life itself may be almost
pure chaos, but the work of the artist is to take these handfuls of confusion
and disparate things, things that seem to be irreconcilable, and put them
together in a frame to give them some kind of shape and meaning.” – Katherine
Anne Porter
Porter, born in Indian Creek, TX on
this date in 1890, was a prize-winning journalist, essayist, short story writer
and novelist. Known for her penetrating insight, particularly in her
short stories and essays, she wrote only one novel – but it was a good one. Ship
of Fools not only was a worldwide bestseller but also earned her the
Pulitzer Prize, The National Book Award, and a box office hit movie.
She also won the National Book Award
for The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter, a hallmark of
short story excellence. Writing short
stories may have come as second nature to Porter, since her father’s cousin was
William Sydney Porter – known to posterity as O. Henry (and in whose name the
annual best American short story award is given).
Katherine’s journalism career began
on the East Coast, then gravitated to Colorado where she was writing for
the Rocky Mountain News when she almost died during the 1918
flu pandemic. When she was finally discharged from the hospital, she was frail
and completely bald and when her hair finally grew back, it was white and
remained that way for the rest of her life.
Her life-and-death experience was
reflected in a trilogy of novelettes led by the wonderful Pale Horse,
Pale Rider. That work earned her the 1940 Gold Medal for
Literature from the Society of Libraries of New York University. When she wasn’t writing professionally, she
was corresponding with dozens of friends and fellow writers. Collected and edited by her close friend
Isabel Bayley, the Letters of Katherine Anne Porter shares 250 of the
thousands of letters the prolific Porter wrote during her lifetime.
“Writing is a craft,” Porter said to beginning
writers. “Be respectful of words.
They mean something.”
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