The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter [Paperback]

Katherine Anne Porter (Author)

Book Description

Series: A Harvest/Hbj Book | Publication Date: September 19, 1979

Porter’s reputation as one of americanca’s most distinguished writers rests chiefly on her superb short stories. This volume includes the collections Flowering Judas; Pale Horse, Pale Rider; and The Leaning Tower as well as four stories not available elsewhere in book form. Winner of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Here is the ideal spoken word cassette to enrich your reading of The Letters of Katherine Anne Porter...The moral edge to these tales is as cutting as that in Nathaniel Hawthorne's fabulations." (Living Room Learning, July 1990 )

About the Author

When Katherine Anne Porter left her home state of Texas for New York, she brought with her the hard edge of a Western pioneer. Passionate and intelligent, it was this edge more than anything that made her name as a writer. Despite her self-imposed exile from her home and Southern background, Porter used this distance as a means of coming to terms with the memories she sought to escape. Born in India Creek, Texas in 1890, Katherine Anne Porter lost her mother at the age of two. Raised primarily by her paternal grandmother, Porter became strong and self-reliant at an early age. Both the loss of her mother and her father’s subsequent neglect had a lasting effect on Porter—making her incredibly attentive to the harsh realities of the human endeavor. At age fifteen she married John Henry Koontz, the first of four husbands. Throughout her entire life she would continue to have passionate affairs marked by dramatic and vicious break-ups. She spent her early twenties moving from Texas to Chicago and back, working as an actress, a singer, and, later, a secretary. In 1917, after a battle with tuberculosis, Porter took a job as a society columnist for the Fort Worth CRITIC. Two years later she moved to Greenwich Village, where she began to work seriously as a fiction writer. Supporting herself with journalism and "hack" writing, Porter published her first story in CENTURY magazine. Though CENTURY provided her with a good sum for the story, Porter was rarely to return to popular magazine publishing, choosing instead the freedom of little magazines. A perfectionist concerned with controlling every word of her stories, Porter gained a name for her flawless prose. Often concerned with the themes of justice, betrayal, and the unforgiving nature of the human race, Porter’s writings occupied the space where the personal and political meet. In 1930 her first book, FLOWERING JUDAS, was published by Harcourt Brace. Though a masterly collection of short stories, it met with only modest sales. It was not until almost ten years later that she published her second book, a collection of three short novels, PALE HORSE, PALE RIDER. She followed this in 1944 with THE LEANING TOWER AND OTHER STORIES. Concerning herself overtly with the rise of Nazism, Porter was able to further investigate the dark side of the average person. It was not, however, until nearly twenty years later that she was able to address the topic in greater depth. SHIP OF FOOLS (1962), was Porter’s first and only novel. Dealing with the lives of a group of various and international travelers, the book became an instant success. Based partially on a trip to Germany thirty years earlier, SHIP OF FOOLS, attacked the weakness of a society that could allow for the Second World War. After 1962, Porter did very little writing, though she won a Pulitzer Prize for her COLLECTED STORIES four years later. In 1977, fifty years after her protest of the Sacco and Vanzetti trial, Porter wrote an account of the event entitled THE NEVER-ENDING WRONG. Three years later she died at the age of ninety. Outliving most of her contemporaries, the strong-willed Porter left behind a thin but insightful body of work. Her flawless pen and harsh criticism of not only her times, but of human society, made Porter a major voice in twentieth century American literature.

Product Details

• Paperback: 504 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (September 19, 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156188767
• ISBN-13: 978-1561887675
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #86,673 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nobody Writes Like Porter: Incredible, July 18, 2004

By 

Jon Linden (Warren, N.J. United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (Paperback)

This book is perhaps the best written 500 pages bound in one place anywhere. Porter has a unique style of writing, that is hers alone. Her use of long, but salient and understandable sentences is terrific. Her use of simile and metaphor is almost unequaled. And her observational abilities and articulation of inner feelings makes her stand out as one of the best American writers of all time.

The book consists of 19 Short Stories/Long Stories/Short Novels and they are all extraordinary. In a shockingly well written story, she writes in "Pale Horse, Pale Rider" a description of going into a depressive pit, the likes of which I have never seen before, fact or fiction. Her style is so good, she leaves the reader guessing what is fact and what is fiction, in her fiction, with respect to her plot line in this very surreal story of a lady going into depression. Her characters are so intimately real life, as to make the reader feel they know them, almost personally. But what we readers know truly, is how wonderfully Porter expresses herself, and how incredible are her endings and beginnings, as well as wonderfully written middles.

No appreciator of American Literature should pass up the opportunity to read this book. In paperback, it is one of the true bargains in America today. For about 15 to 25 hours of extreme reading pleasure, this book fits the bill quite perfectly.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars These stories move me and touch my soul., February 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (Audio Cassette)

"The Grave," a story about a woman whose past is as close to her as her present, is an incredible story. Like Faulkner's brilliance, she understands that men and women cannot escape their pasts, and the actions and events of youth play an indelible role in adulthood. Sometimes that past is forgotten, but small items, such as the shape of a particular hard candy, trigger emotional and poignant memories in the protagontist. This story blows me away every time I read it, and triggers fond and sad, emotional and trivial - memories - of my own childhood.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A buffet of words, March 15, 2002

By 

Kimberly Wells (Shreveport, LA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (Paperback)

Have you ever gone to an all-you-can-eat buffet and overdone it? Then left feeling stuffed but satisfied? This collection of the works of KAP is sort of like that-- you can really binge because there are so many stories, and they're all of high quality. You just want to fill your plate and "eat too much."

But you should really slow down, read some again and again. Maria Concepcion is a great tale of revenge and betrayal; "Virgin Violeta" a coming of age type story... "The Martyr" story about a famous painter (Diego Rivera type) who is in love..."Magic," "Rope," "He," "Theft"-- all of these are powerful looks into human relationships and are so well done that you really feel that you know the people that Porter describes.

Read it slowly, go back and savor the spices & intricate details of every story.