1890
Born Callie Russell Porter, May 15, in Indian Creek, Texas, the fourth child of Harrison Boone Porter (b. 1857, Hays County, Texas) and (Mary) Alice Jones Porter (b. 1859, Guadalupe County, Texas). (Alice Porter, a former schoolteacher, was the second of three children of prosperous farmer John Newton Jones, 1833–1886, and Caroline Lee Frost Jones, b. 1835; she met Harrison Porter, a graduate of the Texas Military Institute, at a family wedding in 1880. In 1883, when Alice’s mother was declared insane, John Jones placed her in private care and moved to Indian Creek, a frontier settlement in Brown County, North Central Texas, where he purchased a 640-acre farm. In 1885, he invited Alice and Harrison, married two years earlier, to join him and Alice’s brothers at the farm, offering them free tenancy on a small farming tract. Harrison Porter was the fourth of 11 children born to Asbury Duval Porter, 1814–1879, a veteran of the Confederate Army, and Catharine Ann Skaggs [“Cat”] Porter, b. 1827, a native of Warren County, Kentucky. Harrison and Alice’s first child, Anna Gay [called “Gay”], was born in 1885, and their second, Harry Ray, in 1887. Their third child, Johnnie, was born in 1889 and died shortly after his first birthday.)
1892
The Porters’ fifth child, a daughter, born January 25; Alice Porter, always frail, dies March 20. To honor her memory, Harrison christens the infant Mary Alice, but she will always be known as “Baby.” Harrison takes the children to Kyle, a town of 500 in Hays County, to live in the home of his widowed mother, Cat Skaggs Porter. Family divides time between Kyle and Cat’s small farm on nearby Plum Creek.
1893–95
Grieving and directionless, Harrison is a distracted and often-absent father. Cat takes charge of the children: she demands obedience, excellent schoolwork, attendance at the local Methodist Church, and good manners. She also instills in Callie the pleasures and powers of storytelling, spinning family tales in which her Skaggs ancestors are larger-than-life figures: her father, Abraham Moredock Skaggs, fought with distinction in the War of 1812; her mother, Rhoda Boone Smith Skaggs, was a descendant of Jonathan Boone, brother of Daniel; her grandfather James Skaggs served under General George Washington; and her great-grandfather Henry Skaggs was an intrepid explorer in the Kentucky territory. “I was fed from birth on myth and legend,” Porter will recall, “and a conviction of natural superiority bestowed by birth and tradition.”
1895–1900
Educated at home by live-in governesses hired by Cat. Enters Kyle public school and precociously reads everything at hand—selections from McGuffey’s Readers (especially the lives of Cotton Mather and Joan of Arc), dime novels, and “trashy romances.” Attempts to write stories, the earliest an illustrated “nobbel” called “The Hermit of Halifax Cave.” Produces plays on grandmother’s porch. Sings duets with best friend, Erna Victoria Schlemmer, the daughter of prosperous German-immigrant merchants. Taken by Cat to San Antonio to see traveling performers such as Ignace Paderewski and Helena Modjeska. Devours the 18th-century English classics, including Boswell’s Life of Johnson, Sterne’s Sentimental Journey, and Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.
1901–2
Distraught by sudden death of Cat, October 2, 1901. Comforted by housekeeper Masella Daney (“Aunt Jane”), a former slave of Cat, and her husband, Squire Bunton. Completes school year in spring 1902, and spends summer at Plum Creek farm. Father disposes of Cat’s estate and takes family on round of visits to Texas and Louisiana relatives. Grows closer to brother and to sister Gay, but resents sister Baby, father’s favorite. Reads all of Shakespeare’s plays and memorizes many of his sonnets.
1903–4
Family stays for short period with father’s cousin Ellen Myers Thompson, who with her husband runs a dairy farm in Buda, Texas. Family settles in rented rooms near San Antonio, where Harrison takes a series of temporary jobs. Girls attend various Catholic day schools in San Antonio, and then board at a convent school in New Orleans. Visits Erna Schlemmer in Kyle and is introduced by her mother to works of Russian writers and European artists.
1904–5
Family moves to rented house near West End Lake in San Antonio. Girls attend the Thomas School (Methodist) for full academic year. In September 1904, Callie asks family and classmates to call her by new name, “Katherine,” adopted in honor of grandmother Cat. (Harry Ray simultaneously changes his name to “Harrison Paul” and asks that he be called “Paul.”) Reads Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, William James’s Varieties of Religious Experience, and the works of Chaucer and Voltaire. Writes school essay defending woman suffrage. Accompanies father to hear stump speech by Eugene Debs, the Socialist Party candidate for U.S. president. Takes singing lessons at Our Lady of the Lake Convent. Performs dramatic reading of “Lasca,” a ballad about a Texas cowboy and his Mexican sweetheart, in Thomas School commencement program. Urged by drama teacher to consider stage career. Performs with Gay in summer-stock theater at Electric Park in San Antonio. Moves with family to Victoria, Texas, near the Gulf of Mexico, and advertises lessons in “music, dramatic reading, and physical culture” in the Victoria Advocate. Writes stories and sends them to Paul, now a Navy recruit. At Christmas dance, meets John Henry Koontz, the 19-year-old son of a wealthy rancher in nearby Inez.
1906
Family moves to Lufkin, in East Texas; there, in a double ceremony on June 20, Gay, age 21, marries Thomas H. Holloway, and Katherine, 16, marries John Henry Koontz. Moves to Lafayette, Louisiana, where Koontz works for Southern Pacific Railway. Begins “one long orgy of reading” including works “from the beginning until about 1800,” Nietzsche and Freud, and a dozen re-readings of Wuthering Heights.
1907
Publicizes herself in the Lafayette Daily Advertiser as “Mrs. J. H. Koontz, Teacher of Elocution, Physical Culture, and English.” Disillusioned in relationship with Koontz, who is tightfisted, verbally and physically abusive, often drunk. Attempts to write stories in the styles of Samuel Johnson and Laurence Sterne and sonnets in the styles of Petrarch and Shakespeare.
1908
Moves to Houston with Koontz when he is offered a position with a wholesale grocery and cotton-factoring company. Yearns for a child of her own and becomes attached to Koontz’s little niece Mary Koontz.
1909
Knocked unconscious and thrown down stairs by Koontz; suffers broken bones. Temporarily escapes to home of uncle Asbury M. Porter, in Marfa, Texas.
1910
Converts to Roman Catholicism, her husband’s faith, in effort to stabilize marriage. Reads and rereads The Confessions of St. Augustine and the lives of the saints, especially Joan, Ursula, Teresa of Ávila, Anne, and Catherine of Siena. Distressed by unabated physical abuse by Koontz. Suffers a miscarriage at end of year.
1911
Moves to Corpus Christi with Koontz when he takes a job as a traveling salesman. Writes stories and poems during Koontz’s absences. Discovers in a local book and stationery store Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons and James Joyce’s Dubliners.
1912
In January, poem “Texas: By the Gulf of Mexico,” her first known publication, appears on the cover of Gulf Coast Citrus Fruit Grower and Southern Nurseryman, a trade magazine. Visits Gay in Dallas after Gay’s daughter, Mary Alice, is born in December.
1913
Undergoes surgery for ovarian cyst. Recuperates at Spring Branch, near Houston, with family friends, the Heinrich von Hillendahls. Weighs the social and financial consequences of leaving Koontz; decides to stay married but instructs Koontz to “take his pleasures elsewhere.” Spends long days with childhood friend Erna Schlemmer, now living in Corpus Christi. Depressed that she has found neither marital happiness nor artistic success.
1914
In February buys one-way train ticket to Chicago and flees marriage. Works as extra in movies The Song in the Dark and From Out the Wreck. Prose sketch, “How Brother Spoiled a Romance,” published in the Chicago Tribune. Attends performance of J. M. Synge’s Playboy of the Western World by the Abbey Players (“the only memorable artistic experience I had in Chicago”). Returns to Texas to help her widowed sister Baby after the birth of a son, then moves to Gibsland, Louisiana, to help Gay, temporarily abandoned by her philandering husband during a difficult pregnancy. Works the Lyceum circuit in a three-state area as a singer of ballads such as “Bonny Barbara Allen” and “Lord Randall.” Unaware of death of maternal grandmother, Caroline Lee Frost Jones, November 14, at the Southwestern Lunatic Asylum, San Antonio.
1915
Moves to boarding house at 1520 Ross Avenue, Dallas, and addresses envelopes for $2.50 a day. Divorces Koontz, June 21, and legalizes name as “Katherine Porter.” Marries and soon divorces T. Otto Taskett, a business acquaintance of Koontz. Works as sales clerk at Neiman Marcus. Begins to call herself “Katherine Anne Porter,” completing her identification with grandmother Catharine Ann Skaggs Porter. In November contracts tuberculosis and, destitute and afraid, enters a Dallas County charity hospital.
1916
With financial assistance from Paul, relocates to the J. B. McKnight sanatorium in Carlsbad, Texas. Finds friend in fellow patient Kitty Barry Crawford, society columnist for the Fort Worth Critic. Transfers to Woodlawn Sanatorium, Dallas, where she teaches tubercular children in exchange for medical care. After discharge from hospital, marries acquaintance Carl von Pless, whom she will divorce within the year.
1917
Children’s story, “How Baby Talked to the Fairies,” published in the Dallas Morning News. Lives briefly with Gay and her children in Dubach, Louisiana, and is enchanted with niece Mary Alice. At invitation of Kitty Crawford, moves into Fort Worth home of Kitty and her husband, Garfield, and assumes Kitty’s duties as Critic society columnist. Does volunteer publicity work for the Red Cross Corps.
1918
With financial help from Paul, travels to Denver, Colorado, to strengthen lungs at private sanatorium The Oaks. In summer joins Kitty Crawford in Colorado Springs, where they share a cabin with Kitty’s friends, the writers Jane Anderson and Gilbert Seldes. In September, hired as reporter for the Rocky Mountain News at $15 a week. In early October, nearly dies in hospital during the Spanish flu pandemic; claims near-death experience of euphoria, “what the Christians call the ‘beatific vision,’ and the Greeks called the ‘happy day.’” Recovers in Dubach under Gay’s care, and enjoys Christmas with five-year-old Mary Alice.
1919
Returns to work at the News, weak and permanently white-haired, and is promoted to drama critic and feature writer; publishes more than 80 signed pieces between February and August. Joins the Denver Players, performs in several of its productions, and is briefly engaged to company manager Park French. In July is grief-stricken at sudden death of niece Mary Alice. Arrives in New York, October 19, determined to write fiction and poetry. Rents studio apartment on Grove Street, in Greenwich Village. Joins staff of Arthur Kane Agency and writes publicity releases for movies. Meets writers Genevieve Taggard, Gertrude Emerson, Rose Wilder Lane, Edmund Wilson, and Edna St. Vincent Millay; radical journalists Kenneth Durant, Mike Gold, and Helen Black; and editors Ernestine Evans, Bessie Beatty, Floyd Dell, and Harold E. Stearns. Enjoys company of several Mexican expatriates—painter Adolfo Best-Maugard, pianist Ignacio Fernández Esperón (Tata Nacho), and poet and critic José Juan Tablada among them—who encourage her to live and work in Mexico.
1920
Publishes re-told fairy tales in Everyland, a magazine for children, and Asia, a magazine promoting world trade and global understanding. Signs contract with Asia to ghost-write “My Chinese Marriage,” the memoirs of a young midwestern woman, Mae Franking, who in 1912 married an American-educated lawyer from Shanghai and later settled in China. In October, takes train to Mexico City with reporting assignments from the Christian Science Monitor and the prospective Magazine of Mexico. Befriended by American journalist Thorberg Haberman, editor of the English-language section of the daily Heraldo de México, and her husband, Robert, a labor organizer and a speechwriter for Mexican president Alvaro Obregón. Writes articles, reviews, and editorials for the left-wing Heraldo and soon comes under surveillance by U.S. Military Intelligence Division, Bureau of Investigation. Writes public letters and sends money in support of Italian anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, convicted of murdering two payroll clerks during a Massachusetts holdup. Becomes acquainted with President Obregón, cabinet members José Vasconcelos, Plutarco Elías Calles, and Antonio Villarreal, and labor leader Luis Morones, as well as archaeologist William Niven, artist Gerardo Murillo (Dr. Atl), and anthropologist and archaeologist Manuel Gamio. Joins the Mexican Feminist Council. Has brief love affair with Felipe Carillo Puerto, governor of Yucatán.
1921
Meets American social worker Mary Doherty, who will become a close friend, as well as muckraking journalist Lincoln Steffens, labor leader Samuel Gompers, and Mexican revolutionary Samuel Yúdico. Has successive love affairs with Polish diplomat Jerome Retinger and Nicaraguan poet Salomón de la Selva. Has abortion after becoming pregnant by De la Selva. Reports from Mexico City appear in the New York Call, the Christian Science Monitor, The Freeman, and other publications. My Chinese Marriage published serially in Asia, June through September, and then as a short book by Duffield & Co., New York. Returns to Fort Worth, stays with the Crawfords, and writes articles for Garfield Crawford’s Oil Journal. Performs in local Little Theatre productions Poor Old Jim and The Wonder Hat. Works on novel called “The Book of Mexico.”
1922
In Greenwich Village January through April. “Where Presidents Have No Friends” published in The Century. Returns to Mexico at request of President Obregón, who appoints her American curator of “Mexican Popular Arts and Crafts,” a state-sponsored exhibit designed to tour the U.S. While writing and researching exhibition catalog, becomes devoted admirer of artists Diego Rivera and Xavier Guerrero and caricaturists José Clemente Orozco and Miguel Covarrubias. Exhibit opens in November in Los Angeles, but bureaucratic obstacles prohibit it from traveling further. Leaves Mexico for New York feeling dispirited and defeated. “María Concepción,” her first published short story, appears in December issue of The Century.
1923
Abandons “The Book of Mexico” in favor of new novel, “Thieves Market.” “María Concepción” reprinted in Best Short Stories of 1922. Returns to Mexico to commission pieces as guest editor of Mexican number of Survey Graphic. Story “The Martyr,” inspired by personal encounters with Diego Rivera, appears in The Century. Begins love affair with Chilean scholar and poet Francisco Aguilera.
1924
Continues affair with Aguilera through mid-April, and then has amorous encounter with his friend Alvaro Hinojosa. When she learns she is pregnant, considers but rejects abortion. Publishes two articles and a translation of a poem by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz in Mexican number of Survey Graphic. In summer, joins friends at a farmhouse near Windham, Connecticut, then stays on alone until last stage of pregnancy. Male child is stillborn, December 2. Resolves to support herself as a freelance literary journalist and seeks reviewing assignments from editor friends.
1925
Recuperates at Greenwich Village apartment of friend Liza Dallett. Becomes closer to Village acquaintances including Hart Crane, Ford Madox Ford, Malcolm and Peggy Cowley, Dorothy and Delafield Day, Allen Tate, and Caroline Gordon. Writes 12 book reviews, mainly for the New York Herald Tribune; will continue to accept reviewing assignments from the Tribune, The New Republic, The Nation, The New York Times Book Review, and other periodicals through the early 1950s.
1926
Spends summer in Connecticut with friends, including writers Josephine Herbst and John Herrmann and painter Ernest Stock. Contracts gonorrhea from Stock, and undergoes surgery for removal of both ovaries, a secret she keeps for the rest of her life. Moves into room at 561 Hudson Street. Takes short-term editing job with J. H. Sears & Co., and under publisher’s name, “Hamblen Sears,” compiles and writes introduction to a collection of essays titled What Price Marriage? (“This book and My Chinese Marriage should have no place in the list of my books.”) Through Allen Tate and Caroline Gordon meets Robert Penn Warren and Andrew Lytle.
1927
In August joins group in Boston for six-day rally protesting the pending executions of Sacco and Vanzetti. Inspired by Tate’s financial success with a popular life of Stonewall Jackson, resolves to write a biography; in fall signs contract with Boni & Liveright for book “The Devil and Cotton Mather” and moves to Salem, Massachusetts, to read Mather papers. While consulting genealogical dictionaries, researches Skaggs, Jones, and Porter family histories. “He,” a story set in Texas, appears in New Masses. Conceives long, three-part autobiographical novel called “Many Redeemers.”
1928
Continues research in Salem. Collaborates with William Doyle on his play Carnival. Analyzes herself in private notes and concludes that she is personally responsible for all her “losses.” Completes two stories, “Magic,” which appears in transition, and “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.” “Rope,” loosely based on her affair with Ernest Stock, published in The Second American Caravan. Works as copyeditor for the small literary publisher Macaulay & Co., and has brief love affair with colleague Matthew Josephson. Falls ill with bronchitis.
1929
Accepts invitation from friends Becky and John Crawford to stay with them in their Brooklyn home. “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” appears in transition. With financial assistance from the Crawfords and other friends, lives in Bermuda from March through July; writes poems and several chapters of Mather biography. Story “Theft,” based on self-analysis in Salem, published in The Gyroscope.
1930
Story “Flowering Judas” appears in Hound & Horn. In January signs two-book contract with Harcourt, Brace: receives advances of $500 for a novel (“Thieves Market”) and $100 for a collection of stories. Returns to Mexico for stay of 16 months. Flowering Judas (“María Concepción,” “Magic,” “Rope,” “He,” “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,” “Flowering Judas”) printed by Harcourt, Brace in edition limited to 600 copies. Meets Eugene Dove Pressly, a 26-year-old American employee of the Institute of Current World Affairs, Mexico City, with whom she begins love affair.
1931
Essay “Leaving the Petate” published in The New Republic. Works on “Thieves Market”; changes title to “Historical Present.” Moves to Mexico City suburb Mixcoac to share house with Pressly and Mary Doherty. Receives Guggenheim Fellowship ($2,000). At invitation of director Sergei Eisenstein, visits Hacienda Tetlapayac to observe filming of ¡Que Viva Mexico! Sails for Europe with Pressly on the North German Lloyd ship Werra, August 22. Arrives in Bremen, September 19, and takes train to Berlin. After Pressly leaves to find work in Spain, moves into boarding house at 39 Bambergerstrass. Meets American journalist and filmmaker Herbert Kline, communist poet and social critic Johannes Becher, and young American writer William Harlan Hale. Spends an evening dancing with Hermann Göring but rejects his further advances. Works on story “Wiener Blut,” inspired by voyage to Germany.
1932
Shares romantic interlude with Hale before traveling to Spain by way of Paris, a city she instantly adores. Quickly returns with Pressly to Paris (“I could not endure the thought of being anywhere else”). Renews friendship with Eugene and Maria Jolas, editors of transition; visits Ford Madox Ford and becomes friends with his companion, Janice Biala. Frequents Sylvia Beach’s bookshop and lending library, Shakespeare and Company, and the cafés Dôme, Coupole, and Select. Becomes friends with publishers Barbara Harrison and Monroe Wheeler, and with Wheeler’s companion, the writer Glenway Wescott. Battling severe bronchitis, enters the American Hospital at Neuilly at end of April. Story “The Cracked Looking-Glass” appears in Scribner’s Magazine. In June goes to Switzerland to join Pressly, now employed by the American embassy at Basel. Abandons “Historical Present” and works on three pieces of “Many Redeemers”: “Noon Wine,” “Old Mortality,” and “Pale Horse, Pale Rider.” In Basel reads Erasmus and other Renaissance writers and, at the Kunstmuseum, deepens appreciation of European art. Essay “Hacienda” published in The Virginia Quarterly Review. Heavily edits Pressly’s rough translation of J. J. Fernández de Lizardi’s picaresque novel El Periquillo Sarniento (The Itching Parrot). Moves with Pressly to the Hôtel Malherbe, Paris.
1933
Marries Pressly, March 11; couple moves to seventh-floor apartment at 166 Boulevard Montparnasse. Attends classes at the Cordon Bleu cooking school. Sits for portraits by photographer George Platt Lynes. Meets Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and Alice B. Toklas. Visited by publisher Donald Brace, who offers contracts for “Many Redeemers” and an expanded trade edition of Flowering Judas. Katherine Anne Porters French Song-Book, a bilingual anthology of traditional French songs with translations and headnotes by Porter, published by Harrison of Paris, a fine press founded by Wheeler and Harrison. Harcourt, Brace rejects the Pressly-Porter translation of The Itching Parrot but offers to buy Boni & Liveright’s contract for “The Devil and Cotton Mather.”
1934
Rewrites “Hacienda” as a long story, printed by Harrison of Paris in an edition of 895 copies. “A Bright Particular Faith,” a chapter of the Cotton Mather biography, appears in Hound & Horn. Story “That Tree” published in The Virginia Quarterly Review. In April sends Brace six stories that form part of “Many Redeemers”: “The Grave,” “The Circus,” “The Grandmother” (“The Source”), “The Witness,” “The Old Order” (“The Journey”), and “The Last Leaf.” Exhausted and ill by May, spends six weeks at the Parksanatorium in Davos, Switzerland. Feels betrayed by Josephine Herbst upon reading her story “Man of Steel,” a thinly disguised account of the Porter-Stock affair, published in The American Mercury. “The Circus” accepted for inaugural issue of The Southern Review, founded by Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks at Louisiana State University. Moves with Pressly to 70 bis rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, a spacious cottage once the home of Ezra Pound.
1935
Publishes three stories in The Virginia Quarterly Review: “The Witness,” “The Last Leaf,” and “The Grave.” Sets aside anger to comfort a desperate Josephine Herbst, whose husband has abandoned her for another woman; is surprised and disturbed by Herbst’s lesbian advances. Expanded edition of Flowering Judas (now also including “Theft,” “That Tree,” “The Cracked Looking-Glass,” and “Hacienda”) published by Harcourt, Brace. Begins developing short novel from material explored in “Wiener Blut”; calls this work-in-progress “Promised Land.” On November 29, addresses the American Women’s Club in Paris on the process of writing fiction and launches speaking career. Depressed by repeated bouts of bronchitis and the darkening atmosphere of prewar Europe, resolves to “go home” to Texas the following spring.
1936
Harcourt, Brace supplements advance for Cotton Mather biography, making possible a February departure for the U.S. Stops in Boston to do research for Mather book. Visits family in Texas and is drawn to teen-aged nephew Paul and niece Anna Gay (“Ann”). Travels with father and sister Baby to Indian Creek to visit mother’s grave, and is moved by verse on tombstone written by father; spontaneously writes short poem for mother (later revised as “Anniversary in a Country Churchyard”) and buries it under soil at the grave. Removes from tombstone a memento: the glass-encased photograph of her mother that her father had affixed there in 1892. Returns to Paris, quits cottage, and moves with Pressly to the U.S. in October. Acknowledging that “Many Redeemers” is not a novel but instead a series of shorter pieces, signs new contract with Harcourt, Brace for collection of five short novels: “Noon Wine,” “Old Mortality,” “The Man in the Tree” (a story about a lynching), “Pale Horse, Pale Rider,” and “Promised Land.” Lives in New York for a few weeks until Pressly leaves for temporary assignment in Washington, D.C. Stays at inn in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, and there completes “Noon Wine” and “Old Mortality.” Story “The Old Order” (“The Journey”) appears in The Southern Review. Returns to New York in December and lives with Pressly at 67 Perry Street.
1937
When Pressly accepts job with an oil company in Venezuela, Porter regards their separation as permanent. Visits Texas for father’s 80th birthday. Receives Book-of-the-Month Club Prize for literary achievement ($2,500). Writes story “A Day’s Work.” Socializes with Glenway Wescott, George Platt Lynes, and Lynes’s brother, Russell, an editor at Harper’s. Briefly resumes friendship with radical and communist friends: marches in May Day parade; co-sponsors Second Congress of American Writers, June 4–6, in New York City; contributes a translation to. . . and Spain Sings: Fifty Loyalist Ballads Adapted by American Poets. Suddenly distances herself from left-wing social circle and embraces Southern friends Robert Penn Warren, Andrew Lytle, Caroline Gordon, and Allen Tate. Participates in Olivet (Michigan) Writers’ Conference with Gordon and Tate, and returns with them to “Benfolly,” their Tennessee estate. Meets Cleanth and Edith Amy (Tinkum) Brooks and 26-year-old Albert Russel Erskine Jr., a graduate student at Louisiana State University and managing editor of The Southern Review. Moves to attic apartment in the Lower Pontalba, New Orleans, and there begins a love affair with Erskine. Completes “Pale Horse, Pale Rider.” Visits family in Texas.
1938
Files for divorce from Pressly, January 11. Works on “The Man in the Tree” and “Promised Land.” Becomes more deeply attached to nephew Paul and niece Ann. On April 19, ten days after divorce from Pressly, marries Albert Erskine; couple takes temporary lodging in Baton Rouge, where Erskine continues graduate study and editorial work for The Southern Review. Returns to Olivet for writers conference and meets Robert Frost (an “old bull-headed bore” but a “great poet and a good man”). Moves with Erskine to apartment at 901 America Street, Baton Rouge. “Pale Horse, Pale Rider” published in The Southern Review.
1939
Pale Horse, Pale Rider: Three Short Novels (“Old Mortality,” “Noon Wine,” and title story) published by Harcourt, Brace. Visits New York for opening of the Museum of Modern Art, and is feted on 49th birthday by friends and admirers. Renews friendship with cousin Lily Cahill, a successful Broadway actress. In constant demand as speaker after appearances at Vassar, Bennington, Bryn Mawr, and Shipley. Moves with Erskine to house at 1050 Government Street, where they take separate bedrooms. Meets young Eudora Welty, whom she encourages in her writing and sponsors for fellowships. Returns at the end of July to Olivet, where she meets Sherwood Anderson. Story “The Downward Path to Wisdom” published in Harper’s Bazaar.
1940
Separates from Erskine at beginning of year. Accepts extended residency at Yaddo, an artists’ colony near Saratoga Springs, New York. Story “A Day’s Work” published in The Nation. “A Goat for Azazel,” a chapter from the Cotton Mather biography, published in Partisan Review. In the summer, “Notes on a Criticism of Thomas Hardy” appears in The Southern Review and “Notes on Writing—From the Journals of Katherine Anne Porter” in New Directions. Lectures at Bread Loaf School of English, Middlebury College, Vermont. Meets Carson McCullers and is offended by her eccentricities. Recognizes that “Promised Land” will be a long novel; changes title to “No Safe Harbor.” The Modern Library publishes new edition of Flowering Judas and Other Stories, for which she writes an introduction. On December 2, makes first of several appearances on CBS radio program Invitation to Learning, hosted by Mark Van Doren. Has brief reunion, but no reconciliation, with Erskine. Receives the first gold medal of the Society of Libraries of New York University.
1941
Story “The Source” appears in Accent. Inducted as member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Purchases house at Ballston Spa, near Saratoga Springs; names it “South Hill” and begins extensive remodeling while continuing to live at Yaddo. In June signs contracts with Doubleday, Doran for a biography of Erasmus and an account of a murder trial in 15th-century France, neither ever realized, and an abridged version of The Itching Parrot. Friendship with Eudora Welty, a summer resident at Yaddo, deepens. Becomes mentor to nephew Paul, an aspiring writer, and artistic patron of niece Ann, a professional ballet dancer. Writes introductions to The Itching Parrot and to Welty’s debut collection, A Curtain of Green. Story “The Leaning Tower” published in The Southern Review.
1942
Father dies, January 23. At Erskine’s request, takes the six weeks’ residency in Nevada required to obtain a Reno divorce; marriage dissolved on June 19. Interviewed by F.B.I. agent about anti-American activities of friends and possibly herself. Participates in writing conference at Indiana University; meets Dr. Alfred Kinsey, who interviews her as part of his research for Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953). The Itching Parrot published by Doubleday, Doran. “Affectation of Praehiminincies,” a chapter of the Cotton Mather biography, published in two installments in Accent. Attends Rocky Mountain Writers’ Conference in Boulder, Colorado. Lives at Yaddo in July and August while remodeling of South Hill is completed. Lonely and miserable during fall and harsh winter. Worries about nephew Paul, who is stationed with the U.S. Army in Europe.
1943
Resigns from the National Institute of Arts and Letters to protest its practice of identifying certain candidates as “Negro.” (Will resume membership when practice is dropped.) With the financial support of friends Glenway Wescott and Barbara Harrison, secludes herself at Harbor Hill Inn near West Point to work on “No Safe Harbor” and other books-in-progress.
1944
Accepts appointment at the Library of Congress as Fellow of Regional American Literature; boards with portrait painter Marcella Comés Winslow in her house on P Street in Georgetown. “Portrait: Old South” published in Mademoiselle. Begins yearlong love affair with painter Charles Shannon, an Army corporal stationed near Washington. The Leaning Tower and Other Stories (“The Source,” “The Witness,” “The Circus,” “The Old Order” [“The Journey”], “The Last Leaf,” “The Grave,” “The Downward Path to Wisdom,” “A Day’s Work,” “The Leaning Tower”) published by Harcourt, Brace. Returns to Yaddo. Excerpt from “No Safe Harbor” published in The Sewanee Review. As vice president of the National Women’s Committee, makes re-election speeches endorsing President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hospitalized in Saratoga Springs with pneumonia.
1945
Signs contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to work as scriptwriter at $1,500 a week; relocates to Santa Monica. Meets Charlie Chaplin, Judy Garland, and playwright Clifford Odets. Signs contract with Paramount Pictures to write screen adaptation of Victorien Sardou’s Madame Sans-Gêne at $2,000 a week. Excerpt from “No Safe Harbor” appears in Partisan Review.
1946
Sells South Hill to friends George and Toni Willison. Buys, then relinquishes, 80 acres of mountain property in High Mojave Desert. Welcomes nephew Paul, who visits California after tour of duty in France. Excerpt from “No Safe Harbor” published in Accent. Memoir “A Christmas Story” appears in Mademoiselle. In desperate financial straits due to unwise management, moves into guest wing of Hollywood house of George Platt Lynes.
1947
Works briefly for Columbia Pictures on adaptation of Chekhov’s story “La Cigale.” Excerpt from “No Safe Harbor” appears in The Sewanee Review. Meets Christopher Isherwood and Texas novelist William Goyen. Negative critical essay on the life and work of Gertrude Stein (“The Wooden Umbrella”) published in Harper’s.
1948
Friendship with Josephine Herbst suffers final rupture when Herbst publishes an attack, “Miss Porter and Miss Stein,” in Partisan Review, and Somewhere the Tempest Fell, a novel featuring barely disguised, unflattering portraits of Glenway Wescott, Monroe Wheeler, George Platt Lynes, and Porter. Speaks at the University of Kansas; meets Isabel Bayley, who will become a lifelong friend. Begins yearlong appointment at Stanford, and is insulted and angry that her classes will carry no credit; becomes friends with faculty members Richard and Ann Scowcroft, Janet Lewis, and Yvor Winters. “Love and Hate” (“The Necessary Enemy”) appears in Mademoiselle.
1949
Receives Litt.D. from the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina, the first of many honorary doctorates. As a Fellow in American Letters of the Library of Congress, is member of the jury that awards Bollingen Prize to Ezra Pound. Teaches summer courses at Stanford. Returns to New York, where she shares an apartment with her niece Ann.
1950
Speaks at colleges and universities, and at the 92nd Street Y. “The Flower of Flowers” and “A Note on Pierre Joseph Redouté” appear in Flair. At Manhattan cocktail party encounters a drunken Dylan Thomas, who lifts her to the ceiling in apparent tribute. Three excerpts from “No Safe Harbor” published in successive issues of Harper’s, October through December. Becomes close friends with protégés J. F. Powers, Peter Taylor, and William Humphrey. Begins two-year term as co-vice-president of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
1951
Begins yearlong affair with William Goyen. Signs contract with Harcourt, Brace for “The Days Before,” a selection from 30 years of essays, book reviews, and other short prose; in lieu of advance accepts in-house position as literary adviser. Speaks at Millsaps College, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and the Mississippi State College for Women. “‘Marriage Is Belonging’” appears in Mademoiselle.
1952
Joins American delegation in Paris for five-week International Congress for Cultural Freedom and speaks at opening session. Retreats to secluded inn in Pont-Aven to write introduction to “The Days Before” but, tired and unconfident, finds she can manage only a brief foreword. “Reflections on Willa Cather” published in Mademoiselle. Returns to Paris and enjoys reunions with her French translator, Marcelle Sibon, and bookseller Sylvia Beach. Returns to New York, and moves into apartment at 117 East 17th Street. The Days Before published by Harcourt, Brace.
1953
Speaks at several colleges and universities. Visits Ezra Pound at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. In a talk at the Corcoran Gallery, speaks out against congressional inquiries into communism on college campuses. Reads poetry on NBC radio network. Begins yearlong appointment as writer-in-residence at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Excerpt from “No Safe Harbor” published in Harper’s.
1954
Suffers attack of angina while teaching class. “A Defense of Circe” published in Mademoiselle. Meets and is charmed by Seymour Lawrence, editor at The Atlantic and The Atlantic Monthly Press, an imprint of Little, Brown. Receives Litt.D. at the University of Michigan. Begins appointment as Fulbright Fellow in Liège, Belgium. Reads “The Circus” on BBC radio. At Christmas, makes first visit to Rome.
1955
Hospitalized for three weeks with influenza; relinquishes remainder of Fulbright assignment and returns to New York in February. “Adventure in Living” (“St. Augustine and the Bullfight”) published in Mademoiselle. Paperback selection of previously collected material, The Old Order: Stories of the South, published by Harcourt, Brace. Leases secluded house on Roxbury Road in Southbury, Connecticut, to work on “No Safe Harbor.” Brother Paul dies, September 19. After death of Donald Brace, leaves Harcourt, Brace for Atlantic–Little, Brown, where Seymour Lawrence is her new editor.
1956
Changes title of “No Safe Harbor” to “Ship of Fools.” Objects to Lawrence’s calling her “woman writer” in catalog copy. Excerpts from “Ship of Fools” published in The Atlantic Monthly and Mademoiselle. Rests at Jefferson Hotel in Washington, D.C., before embarking on 15-college lecture tour. Meets Barbara Thompson, who interviews her for The Washington Post and becomes trusted friend. Essay “Noon Wine: The Sources” published in The Yale Review. Endorses Adlai Stevenson for president.
1957
With financial support from Atlantic–Little, Brown, works with few distractions on “Ship of Fools.” Reads at the 92nd Street Y, New York City.
1958
Discusses Henry James on CBS television program Camera Three. Receives Litt.D. from Smith College and meets commencement speaker, Massachusetts senator John F. Kennedy. Vacates Southbury house. Excerpt from “Ship of Fools” appears in Mademoiselle. Retreats to Outpost Inn in Ridgefield, Connecticut, for a month’s work on “Ship of Fools.” Spends fall semester as writer-in-residence at the University of Virginia. Meets Flannery O’Connor. Speaks at Auburn University, the University of Oklahoma, and the University of Texas at Austin.
1959
Spends spring semester as writer-in-residence at Washington and Lee University. Lectures on Mark Twain at the University of California, Los Angeles. Excerpt from “Ship of Fools” published in Texas Quarterly. Receives $26,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to complete “Ship of Fools.” Rents house at 3112 Q Street in Georgetown.
1960
Continues to work on “Ship of Fools.” Story “The Fig Tree,” written in the 1920s, published in Harper’s. Returns to Mexico to speak under auspices of the U.S. Department of State. Participates with Flannery O’Connor and Caroline Gordon in “Recent Southern Fiction,” a panel discussion at Wesleyan College, Macon, Georgia. “Holiday,” another story written in the 1920s, published in The Atlantic Monthly.
1961
Accepts invitation from President-elect John F. Kennedy to attend inauguration. Presents Regents lecture at the University of California, Riverside. Withdraws to Yankee Clipper Inn on Cape Ann, Massachusetts, to finish “Ship of Fools”; dates completed manuscript “Yaddo, August 1941-Pigeon Cove, August 1961.” Seymour Lawrence launches publicity campaign for novel by selling bookclub rights to the Book-of-the-Month Club.
1962
Ship of Fools published by Atlantic–Little, Brown to positive reviews and great commercial success. Movie rights sold to United Artists for $400,000. Turns over literary representation and business affairs to agent Cyrilly Abels, formerly her editor at Mademoiselle. Takes month-long vacation in Italy and Sicily with niece Ann. Purchases designer clothes and 21-carat emerald ring encrusted with diamonds. Awarded the Emerson-Thoreau Medal by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Deposits papers temporarily at the Library of Congress. Receives Litt.D. from LaSalle College. Long negative review of Ship of Fools by Theodore Solotaroff appears in Commentary, occasioning heated debate among readers, critics, and literary journalists. Leaves for yearlong stay in Europe.
1963
In Rome collaborates with writer Abby Mann on the screenplay for Ship of Fools. Receives $1,000 prize from the Texas Institute of Letters. Buys lavish furnishings in Europe. Returns home in November to the shock of the Kennedy assassination. Inducted into the University of Maryland’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Attends luncheon at White House hosted by President and Mrs. Johnson.
1964
After reneging on offer to purchase house in Georgetown, becomes mired in legal morass. Continues to accept speaking engagements at colleges and universities. Leases large house at 3601 49th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. Lectures at the Instituto Cultural Norteamericano in Mexico City.
1965
The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter, comprising the three earlier collections and four fugitive stories, published by Harcourt, Brace. Follows Seymour Lawrence to Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and then to Delacorte Press. Signs contracts with Lawrence for “The Devil and Cotton Mather” and her collected essays and occasional writings. Film version of Ship of Fools, directed by Stanley Kramer and starring Vivien Leigh, Lee Marvin, Simone Signoret, and others, is box-office success.
1966
The Collected Stories wins National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize. Receives honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Maryland, College Park, and announces eventual donation of papers to university library. Inducted into the 50-member American Academy of Arts and Letters. Begins personal and professional association with attorney E. Barrett Prettyman Jr.
1967
Presides over first meeting of The Katherine Anne Porter Foundation, established to provide financial support to younger writers. Accepts Gold Medal in Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
1968
Spends first week of January hospitalized with influenza. At home, receives numerous visitors, whom she entertains with lavish meals and fine wine.
1969
Moves to townhouse at 5910 Westchester Park Drive, College Park. Becomes member of usage panel for The American Heritage Dictionary. Begins choosing and revising pieces for her collected essays. Spends four weeks in Washington Hospital Center after falling down stairs. Editing of essay collection completed by Lawrence and literary friends. Sister Gay dies, December 28.
1970
The Collected Essays and Occasional Writings of Katherine Anne Porter published by Seymour Lawrence–Delacorte. Falls and breaks hip; spends two months in convalescent home. Moves to double apartment on top floor of 6100 Westchester Park Drive. Meets Clark Dobson and John David (Jack) Horner, young men who escort her to area social events. Meets Kathleen Feeley and Maura Eichner, sisters of the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, who will guide her to a rite of reconciliation with the Roman Catholic Church on December 8.
1971
“The Spivvleton Mystery,” a comic story written in 1926, published in The Ladies’ Home Journal. Undergoes cataract surgery. Delivers keynote speech at “The Year of the Woman,” a seminar at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland.
1972
Receives Creative Arts Award for lifetime achievement in literature from Brandeis University. Returns Emerson-Thoreau Medal to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences when she learns that the Academy, for political reasons, has refused to consider Ezra Pound for the same award. Heart condition worsens. On assignment from Playboy, takes cruise ship to Florida to write eyewitness account of Apollo 17 moon shot; the launch is “glorious” but the article never completed. Gives inaugural lecture at the newly opened Katherine Anne Porter Room of McKeldin Library at the University of Maryland.
1973
Sister Baby dies, May 21. Dissolves The Katherine Anne Porter Foundation.
1974
Names Isabel Bayley her literary trustee. In private ceremony at home, receives honorary degree from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland. Revises “The Land That Is Nowhere,” a fragment of autobiography written decades earlier, for publication in Vogue.
1975
“Notes on the Texas I Remember” appears in The Atlantic Monthly. Receives a rubbing of mother’s Indian Creek gravestone from Roger Brooks, president of Howard Payne University, in her native Brown County, Texas. Hires retired naval commander William R. Wilkins as personal assistant.
1976
Delivers Frances Steloff lecture at Skidmore College. In May, travels to Brownwood, Texas, to receive honorary degree from Howard Payne University and attend county-wide 86th-birthday celebration. Visits mother’s grave at Indian Creek. Gives final public reading, at the 92nd Street Y. Feeling unwell at year’s end, enters Johns Hopkins Medical Center for comprehensive tests.
1977
While in hospital suffers two major strokes. Returns home in early spring to round-the-clock nursing care. “The Never-Ending Wrong,” a memoir of the Sacco-Vanzetti case, published in The Atlantic Monthly and then as a short book by Atlantic–Little, Brown. Mental abilities deteriorate. When judged incompetent by psychiatrist, court appoints nephew Paul Porter her legal guardian.
1978
Experiences severe seizure in December. Graduate student Jane DeMouy becomes her friend and visits her regularly.
1979
Meets Ted Wojtasik, a young college graduate who helps organize her letters for eventual publication, a project later realized by Isabel Bayley. Receives visitors Monroe Wheeler, Robert Penn Warren, and Eleanor Clark, and calls, cards, and gifts from Isabel Bayley, Eudora Welty, Barbara Thompson, and other devoted friends.
1980
Moves to Carriage Hill Nursing Home in Silver Spring, Maryland. Friends gather for 90th birthday party. Sister Maura Eichner and Sister Kathleen Feeley visit regularly, accompanied by Father Joseph Gallagher, who hears confession and administers Eucharist (“I’m busy dying. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done”). Dies September 18, with Jane DeMouy by her side. Ashes buried the following spring in a plot adjacent to her mother’s grave in Indian Creek Cemetery.