Uncollected Early Prose of Katherine Anne Porter ed. by Ruth M. Alvarez, Thomas F. Walsh (review)

Reviews 133 John H. Flannigan’sattempt to relate ‘The Garden Lodge”to Cather’s lesbian identity is insightful if a bit more contorted than necessary, and Robert K. Miller, in the last piece, somehow manages to avoid controversy in attributing Myra Henshawe’s resilient character in My Mortal Enemy to race, specifically her Celtic blood. Perhaps the mixture of quality and approaches defining this collection is the best way to measure the progress and direction of Cather studies. It is an area of significant energy, even when it works at cross purposes. JOHNJ. MURPHY Brigham Young University Uncollected Early Prose ofKatherine Anne Porter. Edited by Ruth M. Alvarez and Thomas F. Walsh. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993. 282 pages, $35.00.) The literature of the American West frequently intersects with Mexican locales. Even though Katherine Anne Porter projected the image of a South­ erner throughout most of her literary life, her roots are Texan and her apprenticeship took place in Mexico. This book expands the canon of her available writings by making accessible early stories and essays as well as extensive notes to uncompleted works and thereby revealing Porter’s slow but sure process of familiarization with Mexican culture. Here finally are so many of Porter’sworkswhich Thomas Walsh used to build his argument in his study of 1992, KatherineAnnePorterand Mexico. All pieces date from before 1932, and many are every bit as good as those Porter chose herselffor her CollectedEssays and Occasional Writings. The temporal and geographical focus mirror the personal fascination Porter had with Mexico throughout the nineteen-twenties . Alvarez and Walsh have plied their craftwith care: every piece they chose is meaningful, and the headnotes they provide sparkle with brevity and rel­ evance. Many of the pieces here collected will provide critics with fresh argu­ ments in the ongoing discussion of Porter’s artistic development. What one finally remembers, then, is Porter’s own voice: fresh, youthful, adventurous. THOMAS AUSTENFELD Drury College ...