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 f
ive-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.”
1922
In Greenwich Village January through April. “Where Presidents Have No Friends” published in The Century. Returns to Mexico at request of President Obregón, who appoints her American curator of “Mexican Popular Arts and Crafts,” a state-sponsored exhibit designed to tour the U.S. While writing and researching exhibition catalog, becomes devoted admirer of artists Diego Rivera and Xavier Guerrero and caricaturists José Clemente Orozco and Miguel Covarrubias. Exhibit opens in November in Los Angeles, but bureaucratic obstacles prohibit it from traveling further. Leaves Mexico for New York feeling dispirited and defeated. “María Concepción,” her first published short story, appears in December issue of The Century.
1923
Abandons “The Book of Mexico” in favor of new novel, “Thieves Market.” “María Concepción” reprinted in Best Short Stories of 1922. Returns to Mexico to commission pieces as guest editor of Mexican number of Survey Graphic. Story “The Martyr,” inspired by personal encounters with Diego Rivera, appears in The Century. Begins love affair with Chilean scholar and poet Francisco Aguilera.
1924
Continues affair with Aguilera through mid-April, and then has amorous encounter with his friend Alvaro Hinojosa. When she learns she is pregnant, considers but rejects abortion. Publishes two articles and a translation of a poem by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz in Mexican number of Survey Graphic. In summer, joins friends at a farmhouse near Windham, Connecticut, then stays on alone until last stage of pregnancy. Male child is stillborn, December 2. Resolves to support herself as a freelance literary journalist and seeks reviewing assignments from editor friends.
1925
Recuperates at Greenwich Village apartment of friend Liza Dallett. Becomes closer to Village acquaintances including Hart Crane, Ford Madox Ford, Malcolm and Peggy Cowley, Dorothy and Delafield Day, Allen Tate, and Caroline Gordon. Writes 12 book reviews, mainly for the New York Herald Tribune; will continue to accept reviewing assignments from the Tribune, The New Republic, The Nation, The New York Times Book Review, and other periodicals through the early 1950s.
1926
Spends summer in Connecticut with friends, including writers Josephine Herbst and John Herrmann and painter Ernest Stock. Contracts gonorrhea from Stock, and undergoes surgery for removal of both ovaries, a secret she keeps for the rest of her life. Moves into room at 561 Hudson Street. Takes short-term editing job with J. H. Sears & Co., and under publisher’s name, “Hamblen Sears,” compiles and writes introduction to a collection of essays titled What Price Marriage? (“This book and My Chinese Marriage should have no place in the list of my books.”) Through Allen Tate and Caroline Gordon meets Robert Penn Warren and Andrew Lytle.
1927
In August joins group in Boston for six-day rally protesting the pending executions of Sacco and Vanzetti. Inspired by Tate’s financial success with a popular life of Stonewall Jackson, resolves to write a biography; in fall signs contract with Boni & Liveright for book “The Devil and Cotton Mather” and moves to Salem, Massachusetts, to read Mather papers. While consulting genealogical dictionaries, researches Skaggs, Jones, and Porter family histories. “He,” a story set in Texas, appears in New Masses. Conceives long, three-part autobiographical novel called “Many Redeemers.”
1928
Continues research in Salem. Collaborates with William Doyle on his play Carnival. Analyzes herself in private notes and concludes that she is personally responsible for all her “losses.” Completes two stories, “Magic,” which appears in transition, and “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.” “Rope,” loosely based on her affair with Ernest Stock, published in The Second American Caravan. Works as copyeditor for the small literary publisher Macaulay & Co., and has brief love affair with colleague Matthew Josephson. Falls ill with bronchitis.
1929
Accepts invitation from friends Becky and John Crawford to stay with them in their Brooklyn home. “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” appears in transition. With financial assistance from the Crawfords and other friends, lives in Bermuda from March through July; writes poems and several chapters of Mather biography. Story “Theft,” based on self-analysis in Salem, published in The Gyroscope.
1930
Story “Flowering Judas” appears in Hound & Horn. In January signs two-book contract with Harcourt, Brace: receives advances of $500 for a novel (“Thieves Market”) and $100 for a collection of stories. Returns to Mexico for stay of 16 months. Flowering Judas (“María Concepción,” “Magic,” “Rope,” “He,” “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,” “Flowering Judas”) printed by Harcourt, Brace in edition limited to 600 copies. Meets Eugene Dove Pressly, a 26-year-old American employee of the Institute of Current World Affairs, Mexico City, with whom she begins love affair.
1931
Essay “Leaving the Petate” published in The New Republic. Works on “Thi
eves Market”; changes title to “Historical Present.” Moves to Mexico City suburb Mixcoac to share house with Pressly and Mary Doherty. Receives Guggenheim Fellowship ($2,000). At invitation of director Sergei Eisenstein, visits Hacienda Tetlapayac to observe filming of ¡Que Viva Mexico! Sails for Europe with Pressly on the North German Lloyd ship Werra, August 22. Arrives in Bremen, September 19, and takes train to Berlin. After Pressly leaves to find work in Spain, moves into boarding house at 39 Bambergerstrass. Meets American journalist and filmmaker Herbert Kline, communist poet and social critic Johannes Becher, and young American writer William Harlan Hale. Spends an evening dancing with Hermann Göring but rejects his further advances. Works on story “Wiener Blut,” inspired by voyage to Germany.
1932
Shares romantic interlude with Hale before traveling to Spain by way of Paris, a city she instantly adores. Quickly returns with Pressly to Paris (“I could not endure the thought of being anywhere else”). Renews friendship with Eugene and Maria Jolas, editors of transition; visits Ford Madox Ford and becomes friends with his companion, Janice Biala. Frequents Sylvia Beach’s bookshop and lending library, Shakespeare and Company, and the cafés Dôme, Coupole, and Select. Becomes friends with publishers Barbara Harrison and Monroe Wheeler, and with Wheeler’s companion, the writer Glenway Wescott. Battling severe bronchitis, enters the American Hospital at Neuilly at end of April. Story “The Cracked Looking-Glass” appears in Scribner’s Magazine. In June goes to Switzerland to join Pressly, now employed by the American embassy at Basel. Abandons “Historical Present” and works on three pieces of “Many Redeemers”: “Noon Wine,” “Old Mortality,” and “Pale Horse, Pale Rider.” In Basel reads Erasmus and other Renaissance writers and, at the Kunstmuseum, deepens appreciation of European art. Essay “Hacienda” published in The Virginia Quarterly Review. Heavily edits Pressly’s rough translation of J. J. Fernández de Lizardi’s picaresque novel El Periquillo Sarniento (The Itching Parrot). Moves with Pressly to the Hôtel Malherbe, Paris.