Books: First Novel

As the architect of her own literary monument, Katherine Anne Porter is the most sparing of designers. The graceful, towering spire of her reputation, unwavering after three decades, rests on three volumes containing but 22 long and short stories—Flowering Judas (1930), Pale Horse, Pale Rider (1939), The Leaning Tower (1944). Last week at 71, still pretty, witty and as talkative as ever ("It's always been my sin"), Katherine Anne Porter announced that she had placed the massive capstone of her distinguished career: a 160,000-word novel, her first, scheduled for spring publication by Atlantic-Little, Brown. Sighed Author Porter: "It feels like the...

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