Katherine Anne Porter (147 page)

1974

1890

Born Callie Russell Porter, May 15, in Indian Creek, Texas, the fourth child of Harrison Boone Porter (b. 1857, Hays County, Texas) and (Mary) Alice Jones Porter (b. 1859, Guadalupe County, Texas). (Alice Porter, a former schoolteacher, was the second of three children of prosperous farmer John Newton Jones, 1833–1886, and Caroline Lee Frost Jones, b. 1835; she met Harrison Porter, a graduate of the Texas Military Institute, at a family wedding in 1880. In 1883, when Alice’s mother was declared insane, John Jones placed her in private care and moved to Indian Creek, a frontier settlement in Brown County, North Central Texas, where he purchased a 640-acre farm. In 1885, he invited Alice and Harrison, married two years earlier, to join him and Alice’s brothers at the farm, offering them free tenancy on a small farming tract. Harrison Porter was the fourth of 11 children born to Asbury Duval Porter, 1814–1879, a veteran of the Confederate Army, and Catharine Ann Skaggs [“Cat”] Porter, b. 1827, a native of Warren County, Kentucky. Harrison and Alice’s first child, Anna Gay [called “Gay”], was born in 1885, and their second, Harry Ray, in 1887. Their third child, Johnnie, was born in 1889 and died shortly after his first birthday.)

1892

The Porters’ fifth child, a daughter, born January 25; Alice Porter, always frail, dies March 20. To honor her memory, Harrison christens the infant Mary Alice, but she will always be known as “Baby.” Harrison takes the children to Kyle, a town of 500 in Hays County, to live in the home of his widowed mother, Cat Skaggs Porter. Family divides time between Kyle and Cat’s small farm on nearby Plum Creek.

1893–95

Grieving and directionless, Harrison is a distracted and often-absent father. Cat takes charge of the children: she demands obedience, excellent schoolwork, attendance at the local Methodist Church, and good manners. She also instills in Callie the pleasures and powers of storytelling, spinning family tales in which her Skaggs ancestors are
larger-than-life figures: her father, Abraham Moredock Skaggs, fought with distinction in the War of 1812; her mother, Rhoda Boone Smith Skaggs, was a descendant of Jonathan Boone, brother of Daniel; her grandfather James Skaggs served under General George Washington; and her great-grandfather Henry Skaggs was an intrepid explorer in the Kentucky territory. “I was fed from birth on myth and legend,” Porter will recall, “and a conviction of natural superiority bestowed by birth and tradition.”

1895–1900

Educated at home by live-in governesses hired by Cat. Enters Kyle public school and precociously reads everything at hand—selections from McGuffey’s Readers (especially the lives of Cotton Mather and Joan of Arc), dime novels, and “trashy romances.” Attempts to write stories, the earliest an illustrated “nobbel” called “The Hermit of Halifax Cave.” Produces plays on grandmother’s porch. Sings duets with best friend, Erna Victoria Schlemmer, the daughter of prosperous German-immigrant merchants. Taken by Cat to San Antonio to see traveling performers such as Ignace Paderewski and Helena Modjeska. Devours the 18th-century English classics, including Boswell’s
Life of Johnson
, Sterne’s
Sentimental Journey
, and Swift’s
Gulliver’s Travels
.

1901–2

Distraught by sudden death of Cat, October 2, 1901. Comforted by housekeeper Masella Daney (“Aunt Jane”), a former slave of Cat, and her husband, Squire Bunton. Completes school year in spring 1902, and spends summer at Plum Creek farm. Father disposes of Cat’s estate and takes family on round of visits to Texas and Louisiana relatives. Grows closer to brother and to sister Gay, but resents sister Baby, father’s favorite. Reads all of Shakespeare’s plays and memorizes many of his sonnets.

1903–4

Family stays for short period with father’s cousin Ellen Myers Thompson, who with her husband runs a dairy farm in Buda, Texas. Family settles in rented rooms near San Antonio, where Harrison takes a series of temporary jobs. Girls attend various Catholic day schools in San Antonio, and then board at a convent school in New Orleans. Visits Erna Schlemmer in Kyle and is introduced by her mother to works of Russian writers and European artists.

1904–5

Family moves to rented house near West End Lake in San
Antonio. Girls attend the Thomas School (Methodist) for full academic year. In September 1904, Callie asks family and classmates to call her by new name, “Katherine,” adopted in honor of grandmother Cat. (Harry Ray simultaneously changes his name to “Harrison Paul” and asks that he be called “Paul.”) Reads Edward Gibbon’s
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
, William James’s
Varieties of Religious Experience
, and the works of Chaucer and Voltaire. Writes school essay defending woman suffrage. Accompanies father to hear stump speech by Eugene Debs, the Socialist Party candidate for U.S. president. Takes singing lessons at Our Lady of the Lake Convent. Performs dramatic reading of “Lasca,” a ballad about a Texas cowboy and his Mexican sweetheart, in Thomas School commencement program. Urged by drama teacher to consider stage career. Performs with Gay in summer-stock theater at Electric Park in San Antonio. Moves with family to Victoria, Texas, near the Gulf of Mexico, and advertises lessons in “music, dramatic reading, and physical culture” in the
Victoria Advocate
. Writes stories and sends them to Paul, now a Navy recruit. At Christmas dance, meets John Henry Koontz, the 19-year-old son of a wealthy rancher in nearby Inez.

1906

Family moves to Lufkin, in East Texas; there, in a double ceremony on June 20, Gay, age 21, marries Thomas H. Holloway, and Katherine, 16, marries John Henry Koontz. Moves to Lafayette, Louisiana, where Koontz works for Southern Pacific Railway. Begins “one long orgy of reading” including works “from the beginning until about 1800,” Nietzsche and Freud, and a dozen re-readings of
Wuthering Heights
.

1907

Publicizes herself in the
Lafayette Daily Advertiser
as “Mrs. J. H. Koontz, Teacher of Elocution, Physical Culture, and English.” Disillusioned in relationship with Koontz, who is tightfisted, verbally and physically abusive, often drunk. Attempts to write stories in the styles of Samuel Johnson and Laurence Sterne and sonnets in the styles of Petrarch and Shakespeare.

1908

Moves to Houston with Koontz when he is offered a position with a wholesale grocery and cotton-factoring company. Yearns for a child of her own and becomes attached to Koontz’s little niece Mary Koontz.

1909

Knocked unconscious and thrown down stairs by Koontz; suffers broken bones. Temporarily escapes to home of uncle Asbury M. Porter, in Marfa, Texas.

1910

Converts to Roman Catholicism, her husband’s faith, in effort to stabilize marriage. Reads and rereads
The Confessions of St. Augustine
and the lives of the saints, especially Joan, Ursula, Teresa of Ávila, Anne, and Catherine of Siena. Distressed by unabated physical abuse by Koontz. Suffers a miscarriage at end of year.

1911

Moves to Corpus Christi with Koontz when he takes a job as a traveling salesman. Writes stories and poems during Koontz’s absences. Discovers in a local book and stationery store Gertrude Stein’s
Tender Buttons
and James Joyce’s
Dubliners
.

1912

In January, poem “Texas: By the Gulf of Mexico,” her first known publication, appears on the cover of
Gulf Coast Citrus Fruit Grower and Southern Nurseryman
, a trade magazine. Visits Gay in Dallas after Gay’s daughter, Mary Alice, is born in December.

1913

Undergoes surgery for ovarian cyst. Recuperates at Spring Branch, near Houston, with family friends, the Heinrich von Hillendahls. Weighs the social and financial consequences of leaving Koontz; decides to stay married but instructs Koontz to “take his pleasures elsewhere.” Spends long days with childhood friend Erna Schlemmer, now living in Corpus Christi. Depressed that she has found neither marital happiness nor artistic success.

1914

In February buys one-way train ticket to Chicago and flees marriage. Works as extra in movies
The Song in the Dark
and
From Out the Wreck
. Prose sketch, “How Brother Spoiled a Romance,” published in the
Chicago Tribune
. Attends performance of J. M. Synge’s
Playboy of the Western World
by the Abbey Players (“the only memorable artistic experience I had in Chicago”). Returns to Texas to help her widowed sister Baby after the birth of a son, then moves to Gibsland, Louisiana, to help Gay, temporarily abandoned by her philandering husband during a difficult pregnancy. Works the Lyceum circuit in a three-state area as a singer of ballads such as “Bonny Barbara Allen” and “Lord Randall.” Unaware of death of maternal
grandmother, Caroline Lee Frost Jones, November 14, at the Southwestern Lunatic Asylum, San Antonio.

1915

Moves to boarding house at 1520 Ross Avenue, Dallas, and addresses envelopes for $2.50 a day. Divorces Koontz, June 21, and legalizes name as “Katherine Porter.” Marries and soon divorces T. Otto Taskett, a business acquaintance of Koontz. Works as sales clerk at Neiman Marcus. Begins to call herself “Katherine
Anne
Porter,” completing her identification with grandmother Catharine Ann Skaggs Porter. In November contracts tuberculosis and, destitute and afraid, enters a Dallas County charity hospital.

1916

With financial assistance from Paul, relocates to the J. B. McKnight sanatorium in Carlsbad, Texas. Finds friend in fellow patient Kitty Barry Crawford, society columnist for the
Fort Worth Critic
. Transfers to Woodlawn Sanatorium, Dallas, where she teaches tubercular children in exchange for medical care. After discharge from hospital, marries acquaintance Carl von Pless, whom she will divorce within the year.

1917

Children’s story, “How Baby Talked to the Fairies,” published in the
Dallas Morning News
. Lives briefly with Gay and her children in Dubach, Louisiana, and is enchanted with niece Mary Alice. At invitation of Kitty Crawford, moves into Fort Worth home of Kitty and her husband, Garfield, and assumes Kitty’s duties as
Critic
society columnist. Does volunteer publicity work for the Red Cross Corps.

1918

With financial help from Paul, travels to Denver, Colorado, to strengthen lungs at private sanatorium The Oaks. In summer joins Kitty Crawford in Colorado Springs, where they share a cabin with Kitty’s friends, the writers Jane Anderson and Gilbert Seldes. In September, hired as reporter for the
Rocky Mountain News
at $15 a week. In early October, nearly dies in hospital during the Spanish flu pandemic; claims near-death experience of euphoria, “what the Christians call the ‘beatific vision,’ and the Greeks called the ‘happy day.’” Recovers in Dubach under Gay’s care, and enjoys Christmas with five-year-old Mary Alice.

1919

Returns to work at the
News
, weak and permanently white-haired, and is promoted to drama critic and feature writer; publishes more than 80 signed pieces between February and August. Joins the Denver Players, performs in several of its productions, and is briefly engaged to company manager Park French. In July is grief-stricken at sudden death of niece Mary Alice. Arrives in New York, October 19, determined to write fiction and poetry. Rents studio apartment on Grove Street, in Greenwich Village. Joins staff of Arthur Kane Agency and writes publicity releases for movies. Meets writers Genevieve Taggard, Gertrude Emerson, Rose Wilder Lane, Edmund Wilson, and Edna St. Vincent Millay; radical journalists Kenneth Durant, Mike Gold, and Helen Black; and editors Ernestine Evans, Bessie Beatty, Floyd Dell, and Harold E. Stearns. Enjoys company of several Mexican expatriates—painter Adolfo Best-Maugard, pianist Ignacio Fernández Esperón (Tata Nacho), and poet and critic José Juan Tablada among them—who encourage her to live and work in Mexico.

1920

Publishes re-told fairy tales in
Everyland
, a magazine for children, and
Asia
, a magazine promoting world trade and global understanding. Signs contract with
Asia
to ghost-write “My Chinese Marriage,” the memoirs of a young midwestern woman, Mae Franking, who in 1912 married an American-educated lawyer from Shanghai and later settled in China. In October, takes train to Mexico City with reporting assignments from the
Christian Science Monitor
and the prospective
Magazine of Mexico
. Befriended by American journalist Thorberg Haberman, editor of the English-language section of the daily
Heraldo de México
, and her husband, Robert, a labor organizer and a speechwriter for Mexican president Alvaro Obregón. Writes articles, reviews, and editorials for the left-wing
Heraldo
and soon comes under surveillance by U.S. Military Intelligence Division, Bureau of Investigation. Writes public letters and sends money in support of Italian anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, convicted of murdering two payroll clerks during a Massachusetts holdup. Becomes acquainted with President Obregón, cabinet members José Vasconcelos, Plutarco Elías Calles, and Antonio Villarreal, and labor leader Luis Morones, as well as archaeologist William Niven, artist Gerardo Murillo
(Dr. Atl), and anthropologist and archaeologist Manuel Gamio. Joins the Mexican Feminist Council. Has brief love affair with Felipe Carillo Puerto, governor of Yucatán.

1921

Meets American social worker Mary Doherty, who will become a close friend, as well as muckraking journalist Lincoln Steffens, labor leader Samuel Gompers, and Mexican revolutionary Samuel Yúdico. Has successive love affairs with Polish diplomat Jerome Retinger and Nicaraguan poet Salomón de la Selva. Has abortion after becoming pregnant by De la Selva. Reports from Mexico City appear in the
New York Call
, the
Christian Science Monitor, The Freeman
, and other publications.
My Chinese Marriage
published serially in
Asia
, June through September, and then as a short book by Duffield & Co., New York. Returns to Fort Worth, stays with the Crawfords, and writes articles for Garfield Crawford’s
Oil Journal.
Performs in local Little Theatre productions
Poor Old Jim
and
The Wonder Hat
. Works on novel called “The Book of Mexico.”