A common criticism of Katherine Anne Porter's work is simply that there is too little of it. In the New York Times Book Review in 1939, in a review of Pale Horse, Pale Rider, Edith H. Walton writes, “One wishes, only, that she could manage to be more productive.” In a 1965 review of The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter, a Time magazine critic states, “An author who in 71 years has published only 27 stories and one novel can scarcely be considered a major writer.”

Though the critics were disappointed with the quantity of her work, most were very pleased with the quality. In a New Republic review of The Collected Stories, Joseph Featherstone writes, “Few writers in America or anywhere else have matched the purity of her English, her powers of deep poetic concentration, her intelligence, her responsiveness to the inner life of her characters, her sharp...