Newsletter of the

Society

Porter Activities at the University of Maryland Libraries

This report on the activities related to the Papers of Katherine Anne Porter and other Porter-related collections at the University of Maryland Libraries covers the period between May 2003 and April 2004. Four on-site researchers from Maryland, Texas, and Virginia, consulted Porter or Porter-related collections during this period. Telephone, mail, and e-mail inquiries were also been received from California, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas. I also communicated with individuals from Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Great Britain, India, the Netherlands, and Spain. During this period, the Libraries supplied 677 Porter or Porter-related photocopies to meet researcher demand, provided five reproductions of photographs, and loaned eighteen reels of the microfilm edition of the Porter papers.

Clark Dobson, a devoted friend at the end of Porter’s life, donated additional Porter and Porter-related materials for the Libraries’ Clark Dobson Collection, including original manuscripts and letters, copies of books with Porter association, and photographs. Porter’s nephew Paul Porter made a significant donation of valuable and, for some of them, unique photographs of and relating to Porter that have been incorporated into his papers. Bill and Fern Wilkins donated interesting correspondence Bill exchanged with John Malcolm Brinnin about Porter in 1977 and 1978. In addition, the Libraries benefited from Bill’s volunteer efforts throughout the year.

There were 191 visitors to the Katherine Anne Porter Room in the last year, during which the room was open on fifty-five Monday and Thursday afternoons. Disappointingly, docent Dorothy Galvin was forced to retire; she was one of the first, with service that stretched back to November 1993. All of the remaining docents, Freddy Baer, Shirley Bauer, Beverly Lewoc, Joan Phelan, Betty Warner, and Maria Walsh, returned to serve in September 2003.

Visitors to the Porter Room from on-campus groups during the year included graduate students from the College of Information Studies and the Department of English. Groups that visited included the Association of Independent Maryland Schools Librarians and the Maryland Caucus of the Mid-Atlantic Archives Conference. About forty individuals visited the Porter Room during our sixth all-campus open house on April 24, 2002. This year there were several events held in the Porter Room during the day. Docent Freddy Baer and her husband Herb’s group, the Saturday Morning Quartet, performed a program of music by Pierre Certon, William Byrd, and Henry Purcell. Their program concluded with two pieces from Katherine Anne Porter’s French Song-Book: “The King Beats the Drum” and “To Charlotte,” performed a cappella by Zeynep Dilli accompnaied by Breno Imbiriba on drum. Graduate assistant Jason Stieber and I performed a staged reading of Porter’s “Rope.” In addition, there was an opportunity for interested individuals to view Jim Day’s 1973 interview with Porter, originally aired on WNET.

A highlight of the year was a trip to Texas in late July. Barbara Harr, Assistant Dean and Director of External Relations for the Libraries, and I enjoyed a visit with Paul Porter in Houston. In addition, Barbara and I travelled to Kyle where Writer-in-Residence Matt Oates gave Libraries’ donor Virginia Phillips and the two of us a private tour of the Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center.

Anyone who has questions concerning the Porter Room or the Libraries’ Porter holdings should not hesitate to contact me, Curator of Literary Manuscripts, Archives and Manuscripts, Hornbake Library, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, 301-405-9298, alvarez@umd.edu. To locate the Katherine Anne Porter resources on the Libraries’ Web site, begin at http://www.lib.umd.edu/ARCV/litmss and follow the appropriate links.