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 17
... leave her marriage , she will leave her family , and she will leave Texas . What she is going to become she doesn't yet know , but the reader can guess : she is going to become an artist , and to do so she has to fly , as James Joyce ...
... leave her marriage , she will leave her family , and she will leave Texas . What she is going to become she doesn't yet know , but the reader can guess : she is going to become an artist , and to do so she has to fly , as James Joyce ...
Page 61
... Leaving the Petate , " a 1931 essay for New Republic , Porter describes how her maid Eufemia , a pure Aztec , prizes ... leave the petate . " Eufemia reflects this trend : she covets western knickknacks , she cuts her braided hair into a ...
... Leaving the Petate , " a 1931 essay for New Republic , Porter describes how her maid Eufemia , a pure Aztec , prizes ... leave the petate . " Eufemia reflects this trend : she covets western knickknacks , she cuts her braided hair into a ...
Page 94
... leave abroad and Handy , after many tragic family difficulties , left Texas for Oregon . I set down these particulars because I can imagine - but only with difficulty - that changing assignments here may have caused confusion . " The ...
... leave abroad and Handy , after many tragic family difficulties , left Texas for Oregon . I set down these particulars because I can imagine - but only with difficulty - that changing assignments here may have caused confusion . " The ...
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