Porter, Katherine Anne 1890–

An American woman of letters, a master stylist, and the author of flawless, standard-setting short stories, Porter is known to younger Americans primarily as the author of Ship of Fools, a novel flawed but unremitting in its intensity. Porter instills her work with profound irony, and her thematic considerations revolve around the workings of the heart and emotions, the difference between appearance and reality, and the consequences of self-deception. (See also CLC, Vols. 1, 3, 7, 10, and Contemporary Authors, Vols. 1-4, rev. ed.)