The Old Order: Stories of the South is a collection of nine works of short fiction and a short novel by Katherine Anne Porter, published in 1955 by Harvest Books, a paperback subsidiary of Harcourt, Brace and Company. The works selected for this volume are assembled from Porter's previously published material.[1]
 First edition cover art | |
| Author | Katherine Anne Porter |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Harvest Books (Harcourt, Brace and Company) |
Publication date | 1955 |
| Media type | Print (paperback) |
| ISBN | 978-1-59853-029-2 |
| OCLC | 2008927625 |
Stories
editThe short fiction that comprises The Old Order: Stories of the South are reprints of previously published work by Porter. The first six stories, organized under the heading The Old Order, a story sequence concerns the character Miranda Gay, as does the short novel "Old Mortality."[2] "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall", "He" and "Magic" first appeared in Flowering Judas (1930).[3] "Old Mortality" was originally collected in Pale Horse, Pale Rider: Three Short Novels (1939).
The Old Order
- "The Source" (Accent, Spring 1941)
- "The Journey" (The Southern Review, Winter 1936)
- "The Witness" (Virginia Quarterly Review, January 1935)[4]
- "The Circus" (The Southern Review, July 1935)
- "The Last Leaf" (Virginia Quarterly Review, January 1935)[5]
- "The Grave" (Virginia Quarterly Review, April 1935)
from Flowering Judas and Other Stories (1935)
- "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall"
- "He"
- "Magic"
from Pale Horse, Pale Rider: Three Short Novels (1939).
- "Old Mortality"
Reception
editPorter was praised for writing with an especially human style. In addition to that her stories had a wonderful simplicity to them that also reflected depth in a unique way. The Old Order contained many short stories that would win her a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1966. This collection of stories served to further her fame and increase her popularity. These stories really provide a window into life in the American south at the turn of the twentieth century.[6]
Literary critic Howard Moss in The New York Times Book Review commented:
The closest thing to a spokesman Porter allows herself is a woman called Miranda...found in the eight reminiscences of the South that were originally published in The Leaning Tower."—Literary critic [7]
Footnotes
edit- ^ Unrue, 2008 p. 1041
- ^ Unrue, 2008 p. 1040-1041
- ^ Unrue, 2008 p. 1040: These works were reprinted in Flowering Judas and Other Stories in 1935
- ^ Unrue, 2008 p. 1040: Presented as "Uncle Jimbilly" under heading "Two Plantation Portraits"
- ^ Unrue, 2008 p. 1040: Presented under heading "Two Plantation Portraits"
- ^ Davis, Barbara (1963). "Katherine Anne Porter, The Art of Fiction". The Paris Review (29).
- ^ Moss, 1965 in Unrue, 2009 p. 48
Sources
edit- Unrue, Darlene Harbour. 1997. Critical Essays on Katherine Anne Porter. Editor, Darlene Harbour Unrue. G. K. Hall and Company, New York. ISBN 0-7838-0022-3
- Unrue, Darleen Harbour. 2008. Editor in Katherine Anne Porter: Collected Stories and Other Writings. Literary Classics of the United States (Compilation, notes and chronology), New York. The Library of America Series (2009). ISBN 978-1-59853-029-2
- Davis, Barbara Thompson. 1963. Katherine Anne Porter: The Art of Fiction (interview) (Winter-Spring 1963). The Paris Review. Retrieved January 2, 2023. https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4569/the-art-of-fiction-no-29-katherine-anne-porter Retrieved January 2, 2023.
- Moss, Howard. 1965. The Collected Stories: A Poet of the Story in Critical Essays on Katherine Anne Porter (1997). Editor, Darlene Harbour Unrue. G. K. Hall and Company, New York. ISBN 0-7838-0022-3
- Schwartz, Edward. 1953. Katherine Anne Porter: A Critical Bibliography. The Folcroft Press, Inc., Forcroft, PA. Reprinted from the Bulletin of the New York Public Library, May 1953. ISBN 9780841475823