Correspondence, 1950-1975

This series includes letters, notes, cards, postcards, and two newspaper clippings exchanged by Abels and Porter. The correspondence is primarily personal but does include discussions of the editing, publication, and publicizing of Porter's writing as well as her financial difficulties. Porter's published and unpublished works mentioned include "After a Long Journey," "Adventure in Living," "A Christmas Story," "A Defense of Circe," "Exacting Blood... From a Population of Turnips," "Flowering Judas," "The Future Is Now," "How to Assault a Husband" (unpublished), "Marriage is Belonging," "Noon Wine," "Pale Horse, Pale Rider," and Ship of Fools.

Some of the correspondence was written during Porter's terms as a writer-in-residence at the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia, and Washington and Lee University in Virginia and concerns these academic experiences. Abels and Porter also wrote extensively of gardening, fashion, and travel. Other topics include Porter's opinions on television, race relations and segregation, the fate of higher education, aging and death, her public image, and language. The correspondence is arranged chronologically.