William Trotter Porter, best known in his own time as a devotee of horses and horse racing, is recognized in journalism history for popularizing the American sporting magazine and for encouraging the growth of a new genre in American literature--the local color sketch, which depicted scenes, characters, and incidents illustrating life in the South and Southwest. In the Spirit of the Times, a sporting magazine which Porter began and which he edited for over twenty-five years, he devoted himself to giving the most thorough and up-to-date coverage of horse racing news in America, later expanding coverage to field and river sports. As interest in horse racing declined, Porter turned the Spirit of the Times into an outlet for humorous sketches sent to him by contributors. Exposure in the Spirit of the Times gave impetus to the development of the new genre. Later, Porter published in book form sketches...