SOURCE: “To Tell a Straight Story,” in Katherine Anne Porter, Twayne Publishers, 1965, pp. 83–117.

In the following essay from his full-length study of Porter's work, Hendrick classifies Porter's short fiction into four main categories based on common thematic concerns, stylistic techniques, and settings.

The stories which follow are divided into four sections. The stories in the first group have a Southern or Southwestern setting, and many have recognizable autobiographic details. “He” and Noon Wine have the familiar Southern setting but are concerned with poor whites instead of the aristocratic Rheas. “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” seems to have been begun as a fictional version of the death of Catherine Anne Porter, but the portrayal is quite different from the fictionalized rendering of Mrs. Porter in the Miranda stories. “Magic” is set in New Orleans, a city Miss Porter knows well, and is a brilliant Jamesian experiment in point of...