Uncollected Early Prose of Katherine Anne Porter

by Katherine Anne Porter, Ruth Moore Alvarez (Editor), Thomas F. Walsh (Editor)

This volume brings together twenty-nine pieces dating from before 1932, none of which appeared in Porter's collected works and many of which are published here for the first time. Both fiction and essays are covered. All these pieces belong to Porter's apprenticeship as a creative writer. Thus, they offer new insights into her artistic development and her relationship with Mexico, a place that, as she later said, "influenced everything I did afterward."

282 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

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

[Eric Cartier · Rating 3 out of 5]

I doubt that anyone who hasn't read Porter's stories or essays - and perhaps her lone novel, her letters, or This Strange, Old World, her fine collection of book reviews - would pick this up. This is an uneven collection of various kinds of writing, some of the pieces are incomplete, and the tedious monograph Outline of Mexican Popular Arts and Crafts is the centerpiece. The editors note that the work reflects Porter's artist development, and that's evident: the pieces are arranged chronologically, so when the book closes with the 1932 version of "Hacienda", it's astonishing how much better it is than everything that preceded it. That said, I think there are at least a half dozen other stories, essays, and sketches of great merit, "Notes on Teotihuacan", "In a Mexican Patio", and "The Lovely Legend" among them. Worth borrowing or acquiring if you're really into Porter's writing and want more of it that isn't readily available anywhere else.