The Days Before

by Katherine Anne Porter

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Genres: Nonfiction

273 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1952

About the author

Katherine Anne Porter was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist. She is known for her penetrating insight; her works deal with dark themes such as betrayal, death and the origin of human evil.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherin...

Reviews

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quotable:

At another time he complained that most philosophers began on the theory that the earth had been designed as a comfortable place for man. He could no more accept this theory than he could the theological notion that the world was a testing ground for the soul of man in preparation for eternity, and that his sufferings were part of a “divine” plan, or indeed, so far as the personal fate of mankind was concerned, of any plan at all.

In later life she swam in the relaxing bath of detective and murder mysteries, because she liked somebody being dead in a story, and of them all Dashiell Hammett killed them off most to her taste.

You are you because your little dog knows you.

If you are required to kill someone today, on the promise of a political leader that someone else shall live in peace tomorrow, believe me, you are not only a double murderer, you are a suicide, too.

Love is a state in which one lives who loves, and whoever loves has given himself away; love then, and not marriage, is belonging. Marriage is a public declaration of a man and a woman that they have formed a secret alliance, with the intention to belong to, and share with each other, a mystical estate; mystical exactly in the sense that the real experience cannot be communicated to others, nor explained even to oneself on rational grounds.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm enjoying reading some of the selections in this book. Porter's style is honest and meandering, if not a bit dry...but it's growing on me. I'm not used to her 1950s references and sometimes I feel like I am listening to my Grandmother speak again, which is kind of nice too. I can only read a little at a time though. Reminiscent of Anais Nin.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came across an autographed copy of this book in a yard sale. I liked it very much. I went out and bought a glass chicken like her grandmother had. I wanted to have a meal with her family.