Katherine Anne Porter, Pale Horse, Pale Rider

Darlene Harbour Unrue (University of Nevada, Las Vegas)
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In the fall of 1927 and the winter of 1928, while Katherine Anne Porter was living in Salem, Massachusetts, and completing genealogical research for a biography of Cotton Mather, she was inspired to research her own family history as a first step toward an autobiographical novel she intended to write. Although that novel, which she tentatively titled “Many Redeemers”, was never completed as a coherent whole, parts of it became the basis for various sketches, short stories, and short novels.

Old Mortality

,

The Old Order

, and

Pale Horse, Pale Rider

, all sections of the unfinished novel, constitute the so-called “Miranda Cycle” within Porter’s

oeuvre

.

Pale Horse, Pale Rider, published in The Southern Review in 1939, was the last segment of the cycle to be written, and it takes up

992 words

Citation: Unrue, Darlene Harbour. "Pale Horse, Pale Rider". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 April 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2979, accessed 19 March 2024.]

2979 Pale Horse, Pale Rider 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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