SOURCE: "The Angel of Malignity: The Cold Beauty of Katherine Anne Porter," in The New York Times Book Review, April 16, 1995, pp. 17-9.

In the following essay, Gordon draws attention to the literary accomplishments of Porter.

A writer pressing the case of the neglected hero gone before has a difficult role: part night nurse, part hit man. Tenderly we protect the wounded one, aggressively we search for someone we can blame. We are, of course, thinking about ourselves. The neglected writer of the past is our own feared specter, our double, thrust into the darkness of the future, the ghost of what we tell ourselves will never happen but know is to come.

A kind of love grows up between these writers, one living, one dead. This can be trying if the writer you love is probably not a person you would have liked. I am in the situation...