Heartland Heroine

She won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. President Kennedy praised her work. Vivien Leigh starred in her movie. Her life rivaled the character drama of Hemingway’s—four marriages, countless affairs, stints in New York and Paris and Mexico. But you may have never heard of Katherine Anne Porter. And even here in her home state, you’re even less likely to know that this 20th-century master of the short story could be the best writer ever born and raised in Texas.

For readers—and proud Texans—Porter’s local roots are worth tracing. To start, a look at the Katherine Anne Porter archives at Texas State University in San Marcos reveals her as a writer’s writer. Porter grew up nearby, in the rail stop of Kyle, and five boxes of papers related to her remain at The Wittliff Collections. Sit, as I do on