From Texas to the World and Back: Essays on the Journeys of Katherine Anne PorterMark Busby, Dick Heaberlin TCU Press, 2001 - 249 pages Katherine Anne Porter's uneasy relationship with her home state has become increasingly important to discussions of her life and work. Born in the now-gone community of Indian Creek and raised in Kyle, Porter is tied to Texas by three major events that occurred during her career. In 1939 she expected to receive the Texas Institute of Letters Award for "Best Texas Book" only to be insulted when the award went to folklorist J. Frank Dobie. In the 1950s she accepted an invitation to lecture at the University of Texas at Austin. During her visit to present that lecture, Porter began to believe that UT would build a library and name it after her, Texas' most famous literary daughter. But somehow she and UT President Harry Ransom miscommunicated, and Porter left her materials to the McKeldin Library at the University of Maryland. Finally, in 1976 she returned to Texas to receive recognition from Howard Payne University in Brownwood. On that trip she visited her mother's grave in the little cemetery at Indian Creek and decided that her remains on her death belonged beside her mother. So Porter finally returned to the state she had fled early in her life. The essays in this collection are based primarily upon a symposium held in May 1998 at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos. The collection includes essays by both scholars of Porter's work and of Texas literature. Some concern specific aspects of her life, such as her love for her birthday or her marital record. Others focus on the main elements of her relationship with Texas, while still others deal with specific works, often relating them to her Texas heritage. This important addition to Porter studies provides new insight into the ways in which Porter's Texas heritage shaped her life and her fiction. |
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Page 12
... Grave " is set squarely in the Kyle milieu . The time is 1903 , two years after the death of Grandmother . With the ... graves , where they find " treas- ure " : Paul finds a gold ring — a wedding band — and Miranda , a coffin screw with ...
... Grave " is set squarely in the Kyle milieu . The time is 1903 , two years after the death of Grandmother . With the ... graves , where they find " treas- ure " : Paul finds a gold ring — a wedding band — and Miranda , a coffin screw with ...
Page 46
... grave at Indian Creek . Arriving there the week before her birthday , she planted a rose bush near the tombstone , and on a scrap of paper she impulsively composed a poem she titled " Birthday in a Country Cemetery " and buried under ...
... grave at Indian Creek . Arriving there the week before her birthday , she planted a rose bush near the tombstone , and on a scrap of paper she impulsively composed a poem she titled " Birthday in a Country Cemetery " and buried under ...
Page 128
... grave . Not even half - filled with graves , the cemetery is enclosed by a neat cyclone fence . Level and dotted with live oak and mesquite trees , the area is surrounded by low hills that are covered more profusely with these native ...
... grave . Not even half - filled with graves , the cemetery is enclosed by a neat cyclone fence . Level and dotted with live oak and mesquite trees , the area is surrounded by low hills that are covered more profusely with these native ...
Contents
Katherine Anne Porter | 20 |
Darlene Harbour UnrueKatherine Anne Porters Birthdays | 38 |
Katherine Anne | 54 |
Copyright | |
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Alice ambivalence American Austin biography birthday Brownwood Center Charles child Collected Essays Collected Stories College Park colonizer creative critical death Dobie's Don Graham early father feelings Fiesta of Guadalupe Flowering Judas Frank Dobie Goyen grandmother Harry Ransom Holiday Howard Payne University husband Institute of Letters Janis KAP's Katherine Anne Porter Kyle later Laughlin Library literature living María Concepción marriage married McKeldin McMurtry Memmi Mena's story Mexican Mexico Miranda Miss Porter mother mother's grave narrative narrator never Noon Wine Old Mortality Old Order Pale Horse Pale Rider Porter and Texas Porter's fiction Porter's story Pressly Princess published relationship Revolution Robert Penn Warren Rosa sense Ship of Fools southern Stout Texas Institute Texas Writers things University of Maryland University of Texas Unrue Walsh wanted William Humphrey woman artist women wrote Xochimilco York young