Scope and Content of Collection
Paul Porter's collection includes materials dating from 1903 to 2009, with the bulk of the materials from 1977 to 2002. Mr. Porter's correspondence with Miss Porter and the University of Maryland, together with the guardianship records, form the core of the collection. The guardianship files contain financial, legal, and literary records, including court documents, business correspondence, and royalty statements, as well as a collection of personal correspondence. These provide extensive documentation of Katherine Anne Porter's last years. There are clippings of newspaper, magazine, and scholarly articles by or about Porter and a collection of her clipped, typed, and handwritten recipes and menus. The collection includes photographs of Katherine Anne Porter, her homes, her gravemarker, artwork related to Porter, and Mexico. The collection also includes photographs of Paul Porter. There are audio tapes of telephone conversations between Mr. Porter and Porter and of one of her dinner parties, one tape of commercially recorded music, and several video cassettes relating to Porter. Also included are a photograph of Paul Porter with First Lady Laura Bush framed with Mrs. Bush to Mr. Porter and a plaque recognizing Porter as a member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame.