Journalist, Essayist, Author, Poet. She was born Callie Russell Porter in Indian Creek Texas. Her mother died when she was two, and her family went to live with her paternal grandmother, whose name Porter would eventually adapt as her professional name. She left home at the age of sixteen to marry the first of three husbands. After this marriage ended, she tried her hand at acting. During convalescence from tuberculosis, she decided instead to be a writer. She set out to be a journalist and worked for newspapers in Chicago and Denver. In 1918, Porter would become interested in Mexican politics, and her writing would become influenced by the time she would spend there. After her sojourn in Mexico, she would rediscover her heritage in the south and would produce works that reflected this. Eventually her work reflected a certain cynicism, such as seen in her most famous book and her only full-length novel, "The Ship of Fools," which was eventually made into an Oscar-winning film starring Vivian Leigh. In 1966, Porter won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for "The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter." Among her other works was a collection of short stories called "Pale Horse, Pale Rider" and such well known short stories as "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" and "A Dill Pickle". Perhaps Porter's greatest legacy was her bold determination to express how she felt about herself and the world in which she lived that give her writings the character and depth that make them widely read to this day.
Journalist, Essayist, Author, Poet. She was born Callie Russell Porter in Indian Creek Texas. Her mother died when she was two, and her family went to live with her paternal grandmother, whose name Porter would eventually adapt as her professional name. She left home at the age of sixteen to marry the first of three husbands. After this marriage ended, she tried her hand at acting. During convalescence from tuberculosis, she decided instead to be a writer. She set out to be a journalist and worked for newspapers in Chicago and Denver. In 1918, Porter would become interested in Mexican politics, and her writing would become influenced by the time she would spend there. After her sojourn in Mexico, she would rediscover her heritage in the south and would produce works that reflected this. Eventually her work reflected a certain cynicism, such as seen in her most famous book and her only full-length novel, "The Ship of Fools," which was eventually made into an Oscar-winning film starring Vivian Leigh. In 1966, Porter won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for "The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter." Among her other works was a collection of short stories called "Pale Horse, Pale Rider" and such well known short stories as "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" and "A Dill Pickle". Perhaps Porter's greatest legacy was her bold determination to express how she felt about herself and the world in which she lived that give her writings the character and depth that make them widely read to this day.
Bio by: Catharine
Family Members
Advertisement
See more Porter memorials in:
Records on Ancestry
Advertisement
