In this study of Porter's work, Tanner focuses on Porter's denial of her Texas heritage, her apparent urge to distance herself from Texas and all things Texan. He analyzes Porter's settings and characters, emphasizing and clarifying the influence of her Texas upbringing on her creative art, exploring the conflict between the Texas Porter and the urbane-sophisticate Porter.
Born in Indian Creek, Texas, in 1890, Katherine Anne Porter was always a Texas writer, even though she roamed widely, and seemed to represent, for many readers, a more Southern and genteel facet of Texas culture than...