In the fall of 1927 and the early winter of 1928, Katherine Anne Porter decided to research her ancestral history as a first step toward writing an autobiographical novel that she envisioned as “the story of America”. She tentatively called her novel “Many Redeemers”, and it was to have three parts: “Legends of the Ancestors”, “Midway of this Mortal Life”, and “The Present Day”. The first part, “Legends of the Ancestors”, comprising her genealogical research into the Porter and Skaggs families, her childhood memories, and tales told by her paternal grandmother, Catharine Ann Skaggs Porter, resolved itself as seven stories and sketches: “The Source”, “The Journey

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Published 20 April 2005

Citation: Unrue, Darlene Harbour. "The Old Order". The Literary Encyclopedia. 20 April 2005.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16754, accessed 9 February 2010.]