San Antonio College Library

Selected letters between Porter and fellow writers trace her development as a writer and reveal her outlook on life.

Granny Weatherall is a spunky old lady of eighty who bosses her doctor and her children. She seems so strong and in control. Yet she has never had the upper hand in her destiny. One morning, a flood of long-forgotten memories bring her to the realization that of all her accomplishments, she cannot console herself for the shame-filled day she was left standing at the altar. Still, her indomitable will to live and act independently infuses the last...

This book is the story of a life as its holder perceived it. Here is the life, as she recalled it, of a great writer of fiction, of Ship of Fools, of "Leaning Tower," of the miraculous Miranda stories. Her fiction came so much from her life, from her observations, from her insecurities, fears and obsessions, that sometimes it is difficult to find the line between the fiction and the life. It was apparently so for her as well, as is clear in the Miranda...

Short story writer Katherine Porter discusses William Faulkner and reads an excerpt from The Bear. Topics include: favorite short stories, The Sound and the Fury, themes within his fiction, and how the South influenced his writings on this episode of Camera Three.

A brief, appreciative working analysis of Katherine Anne Porter's stories, one novel, and essays by a professor of English, and a mixed reception by American, English, and German critics of Ship of Fools is reviewed at some length.