Correspondence With Katherine Anne Porter, 1962-1980

This series includes letters, notes, cards, memoranda, and clippings, most of the last annotated by Porter. The correspondence is primarily personal, for even when writing a business letter, Porter included her sentiments toward Prettyman. The letters are often solely about their relationship and her feelings for him, but some discuss legal or financial matters, current events, daily life, her health, and menus of meals she had prepared or wanted to prepare for him.

Interfiled are four letters written by Porter to Prettyman in 1971 and 1976 that Prettyman characterized as "defamatory." They concern Glenway Wescott, her publisher Seymour Lawrence, and the Katherine Anne Porter Room at the University of Maryland. Additionally, there are eight postcards Prettyman sent to Porter in 1976 and 1977 as well as an invitation to his son's wedding in 1979. Also interfiled are a few letters written by other individuals to Miss Porter and forwarded to Prettyman for advice. Included in the 1997 accretion are two folders of similar materials. Items of special interest are notes from a 1970 conversation between Porter and Prettyman about her encounter with Dylan Thomas in 1957 and a 1974 memo to the file about Porter's second marriage. There are also two additional folders of bill payment information from the G. E. Credit Corporation and Smith's Transfer and Storage Company that Porter had forwarded to Prettyman for legal action.

This series is divided into two groupings. The first consists of correspondence donated to the Libraries in 1990. This grouping is arranged chronologically. The second grouping contains the Prettyman-Porter correspondence donated by Mr. Prettyman in 1997. This correspondence is arranged chronologically except for that with Smith's Transfer Co. and G.E. Credit Corp. These portions of the correspondence have been placed into individual folders and arranged chronologically.