Katherine Anne Porter: A Biographical Sketch

I came across Katherine Ann Porter recently while browsing through the Paris Review Interviews at the library. Skipping the introduction, I went straight for the meat, and was quickly drawn in by Porter’s confident, lively answers. It was only later, at home, that I returned to the introduction and noted the editorial footnote: “Much of what follows is factually incorrect. But as Porter was renown for embellishing and glamorizing her past, the editors have decided to leave fake enough alone.” If the voice in the interview hadn’t convinced me to delve into Porter’s work and biography, that footnote surely would have.

Katherine Anne Porter: Early Life

As a result, I soon discovered that Porter’s real life was at least as interesting as her invented one. Born Callie Russell Porter on May 15, 1890, in Indian Creek, Texas, Porter overcame more than her share of hardship on the way to literary success. Her mother died when she was two and her father was a shiftless, temperamental man, who was neither a consistent parent or an adequate provider. Her strong-willed grandmother, whose name she would later adopt, provided the only constancy in her young life.

Porter managed to get a year of formal high school education at the Thomas School, a private school in San Antonio, where she hoped to learn the skills to become an actress. For many years she did help support her family by acting, singing, and teaching singing and music. At age 16, she married John Henry Koontz, entering into her “preposterous first marriage,” which would last nine years, the longest of her three marriages. Under the influence of his family, she converted to Catholicism, which would become an important influence on her work.

The Beginning of Katherine Anne Porter's Literary Life

Porter’s literary life began, unexpectedly enough, in a sanitarium in San Angelo, where she met Kitty Barry Crawford, one of the first newspaperwomen in Texas. Through Barry Crawford, she, too, began a career as a newspaperwoman, first in Fort Worth and then in Denver. In 1919 she moved to New York’s Greenwich Village, where she worked in publicity and continued to write and publish.

While many of her friends and colleagues went to Europe during this time, money and health problems prevented Porter from following suit. Instead, she moved to Mexico, which would provide the setting for several of Katherine Anne Porter's best-known stories, including “Flowering Judas” and “María Concepción.”