A Curtain of Green and Other Stories, (1941) by Eudora Welty. Porter wrote the foreword to this classic collection of short stories by another major Southern woman writer. Like Porter's work, Welty's stories often deal with women and families, and are Southern in setting and style. One of the most famous stories in the collection, "Why I live at the P.O.," resembles Porter's style in its light touch and its undercurrent of darkness that is never fully explained.

Pale Horse, Pale Rider, (1939) by Katherine Anne Porter. This collection of three "short novels," as Porter calls them, offers more insight into the character of Miranda in "Old Mortality" and "Pale Horse, Pale Rider." In the contrasting characters of Aunt Amy and Cousin Eva from "Old Mortality," Porter offers a striking critique of the ideal of Southern womanhood. "Pale Horse, Pale Rider...