ENGL 4310

We have discussed before how the life long sickness of both of these authors affected their work. In her letter to Paul Porter, Katherine Anne Porter writes:

This is Armistice Day, and this government is busy building up Germany for the
second time, and recognizing Franco, and injuring France and England our Allies,
and, I don’t doubt, preparing another great war and great depression to follow,
in good republican routine, just as they began to prepare on this day
thirty-eight years ago. On that day I came out of the death-stupor of
influenza, and realized that I would live, after all, but it made such a change
in me, that near-dying, and knowing just what was happening, it is as if I had
two lives—one on the other side of that illness, and the second one ever
since.

We knew that “Pale Horse, Pale Rider” was largely autobiographical, but I did not realize until I read that how much so. If you will remember, Miranda started coming out of her sickness on the day of the Armistice. We can also here echoes of Porter’s “two lives” within the story. In the story Porter writes, “Miranda wondered again at the time and trouble the living took to be helpful to the dead. But not quite dead now, she reassured herself, one foot in either world now; I shall cross back and be home again” (316-317). In her letter to Mr. Hartley about “Pale Horse, Pale Rider” Porter says, “You are quite right, that story is so completely autobiographical it amounts almost to a document” (177). With that quote in mind, and the fact that Miranda and Porter both came out of their sickness on Armistice Day I have to wonder if perhaps “Pale Horse, Pale Rider” is not more autobiographical than I originally thought. If “it amounts almost to a document” does that mean there was an “Adam” or are the autobiographical elements the way in which Miranda reacts to her illness? Is it a combination of the two? I wonder if anyone can shed light on that.

In any case, I think it is important to consider that “Pale Horse, Pale Rider” and Porter’s life may have stronger connections than first assumed. Certainly from reading these letters I can better appreciate the origin of this story.