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