Katherine Anne Porter (154 page)

305.38–39
In Flanders Field. . . row”] Cf. “In Flanders Fields” (1915), poem by Canadian Army surgeon Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae (1872–1918).

306.11
“Tipperary” or “There’s a Long, Long Trail”] Popular anthems of World War I: “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary” (1912), British music-hall song by Harry Williams, words by Jack Judge; “There’s a Long, Long Trail A-winding” (1915), song by Yale undergraduates Alonzo “Zo” Elliott and Stoddard King.

308.6–7
Pack Up Your Troubles”] “Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag (And Smile, Smile, Smile)” (1915), marching song by “Charles Asaf” (the English Brothers Felix and George Henry Powell).

308.17
Madelon”] “Quand Madelon” (1918), French popular song by Camille Robert, words by Louis Bosquet, about a Breton barmaid who refuses to kiss any one soldier because “she is true to the whole regiment.”

309.28
Mumm’s Extry] Mumm Carte Classique, an extra-dry white Champagne.

315.22–23
I confess. . . Paul] The Confiteor (“I confess”), spoken by the celebrant at the beginning of the Roman Rite of Mass.

315.30
Blessed. . . mild] Cf. “Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild,” in
Hymns and Sacred Poems
(1739) by Charles Wesley (1701–1788).

325.38
Armistice] On November 11, 1918, at Compiègne, France, the Germans signed an armistice agreement prepared by the Allied powers, ending World War I.

329.21
Bois d’Hiver] “Winter wood,” a heavy, spicy French perfume.

329.32
Lazarus, come forth] See John 11:43.

334.34
bois d’arc] Osage Orange (
Maclura pomifera
); also known as the bodock or hedge-apple tree.

344.27
from San Marcos to Austin] About 30 miles.

403.26–27
Little Tammany Association] The Tammany Society (1789–1961)—better known, after its headquarters on 14th Street, as Tammany Hall—was the political machine that controlled Democratic Party politics in New York City in 1850–1930. In its heyday, Tammany was led by Irish Catholic immigrants who did much to advance their people’s interests through political nominations, municipal contracts, influence, and intimidation. The “Boss” of the Tammany machine was a kingmaker and a popular symbol of political corruption. The Little Tammany Association was the machine’s organization in the Bronx.

409.24
G-men] “Government men”; agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

417.10–11
St. Veronica’s] Former Roman Catholic parish in the West Village, with a church on Christopher Street.

418.7
riding. . . on the Tiger’s back] Tammany Hall (see
note 403.26–27
) was nicknamed “The Tiger” and depicted as such in political cartoons of the day. To “ride on the Tiger’s back” was to benefit from Tammany’s political influence.

422.17–19
The Duchess
. . . poems]
The Duchess
(1887) by Margaret Wolfe Hungerford (1855–1897), Irish novelist who wrote under the name “The Duchess”; Ouida, pen name of English novelist Maria Louise Ramé (1839–1908); Mrs. E.D.E.N. (Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte) Southworth (1819–1899), American novelist whose stories were set in the South during Reconstruction;
Poems of Passion
(1883), collection by the American poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919).

427.4–6
songs of Heine’s] Heinrich Heine (1797–1856), German Romantic poet whose verses were set to music by Franz Schubert (1797–1828) and Robert Schumann (1810–1856).

427.6
Low German] Regional dialect of German spoken in the flat coastal and plains area of northern Germany; the dialect and those who speak it are also called
Platt Deutsch
.

433.8
Turnverein
] German-style athletic club and community hall with auditorium, dance floor, restaurant, and perhaps a bowling alley.

436.27
Das Kapital
] Three-volume critique of capitalism (1867–1894) by German philosopher and economist Karl Marx (1818–1883), edited and completed by his friend and fellow-Communist Friedrich Engels (1820–1895).

446.1–2
Mutterchen, Mutti, Mutti
] Little Mother, Mommy, Mommy.

456.4
Heilige Nacht,”] The Austrian carol “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht” (“Silent Night, Holy Night,” 1818) by Josef Mohr, words by Franz Xavier Gruber.

456.5
Martin Luther’s “Cradle Song,”] The melody of “Away in a Manger” is traditionally attributed to Luther.

456.32
Brother. . . dime?”] “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” (1931), popular song of the Great Depression by Jay Gorney, words by E. Y. “Yip” Harburg.

461.12
shot-silk] Chatoyant silk, woven with strands of two or more colors to produce an iridescent effect.

466.33
Tiergarten] Large park in the heart of Berlin, the east side of which faces the Brandenburg Gate.

470.22
Jawohl!”
] “Yes indeed!”

474.31
Low-German] See
note 427.6
.

477.24
Platt Deutsch] See
note 427.6
.

481.21
Dance of Death]
Der Totentanz
(1538), series of 41 wood engravings by Hans Holbein the Younger.

483.9
boîte
] Nightclub.

485.24
mensur
] Duel fought between university students over a point of honor.

504.31–505.6
Ich armes
. . . du verloren hast—”] German marching song: “What a poor devil am I, / I can’t march any longer, / I can’t march any longer./ / I’ve lost my piccolo / From out of my coat bag / From out of my coat bag. / / I’ve found, I’ve found the thing, / The thing that you lost, / The thing that you lost. . . .”

505.8
The Peanut Vendor”] “El Manisero,” Cuban rumba by Havana bandleader Don Azpiazu (1893–1943), popularized by the Hollywood musical
The Cuban Love Song
(1931).

515.3
The Days Before
, by Katherine Anne Porter]
The Days Before
(New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1952) is Porter’s selection from her essays, reviews, and other nonfiction writings, 1922–1952. She dedicated the book to her older sister, Gay Porter Holloway, and organized the contents as follows (variant titles used in the present volume are set off in brackets): Foreword [“I needed both. . .”];
C
RITICAL
: “The Days Before,” “On a Criticism of Thomas Hardy,” “Gertrude Stein: Three Views” (“‘Everybody Is a Real One,’” “Second Wind,” “The Wooden Umbrella”), “Reflections on Willa Cather,” “‘It Is Hard to Stand in the Middle,’” “The Art of Katherine Mansfield,” “Orpheus in Purgatory,” “‘The Laughing Heat of the Sun,’” “Eudora Welty and
A Curtain of Green
,” “Homage to Ford Madox Ford [“Ford Madox Ford”],” “Virginia Woolf,” “E. M. Forster”;
P
ERSONAL
AND
P
ARTICULAR
: “Three Statements About Writing” (“The Situation in American Writing,” “Introduction to
Flowering Judas”
[“The only reality. . .”], “Transplanted Writers”), “No Plot, My Dear, No Story,” “The Flower of Flowers,
with
A Note on Pierre-Joseph Redouté,” “Portrait: Old South,” “Audubon’s Happy Land,” “A House of My Own,” “The Necessary Enemy,” “‘Marriage Is Belonging,’” “American Statement: 4 July 1942” [“Act of Faith: 4 July 1942”], “The Future Is Now”;
M
EXICAN
: “Notes on the Life and Death of a Hero,” “Why I Write About Mexico,” “Leaving the Petate,” “The Mexican Trinity,” “La Conquistadora,” “Quetzalcoatl,” “The Charmed Life.”

523.13–15
Mr. James. . . and liked him.”] These words are not by Thomas Carlyle; they are from a letter to him by the English writer John Sterling, dated December 7, 1843, published in Carlyle’s
Life of John Sterling
(1897).

523.17–18
odd legend”] See Chapter 6 of
Notes of a Son and Brother
(1914) by Henry James (1843–1916). All quotations from James used in this essay are taken from his memoirs
A Small Boy and Others
(1913),
Notes of a Son and Brother
, and the posthumous fragment
The Middle Years
(1917).

524.16–17
Revue des Deux Mondes
] Critical monthly, published in Paris since 1829.

525.19–20
his fragment of autobiography] “Autobiography,” in
The Literary Remains of the Late Henry James
(1884), edited by his eldest son, the psychologist William James (1842–1910). All quotations from Henry James Sr. (1811–1882) used in this essay are taken from this volume.

525.33–34
faute de mieux
] For lack of something better.

527.6
Uncle Gus] Augustus James (1807–1866), brother of Henry James Sr.

527.20
Mr. Emerson] Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882).

528.18
his mother’s sister] Catherine Walsh (1812–1889), “Aunt Kate” to the James children.

528.25
Charm] The Charm: A Book for Boys and Girls,
 monthly  magazine published in London, 1852–54.

529.12
Mr. Thackeray] William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863).

529.33
Mr. Brady’s] Studio of Mathew Brady (1822–1896), known for his portraits and Civil War photographs.

531.3–5
Alice. . . whim.”] Alice James (1848–1892), sister of Henry James; journal entry dated November 18, 1889, from
Alice James: Her Brothers—Her Journal
(1934), edited by Anna R. Burr.

534.16
Mr. Jenks’s school] In 1853–54, Henry and William James attended a boys’ school, on Broadway near Fourth Street, established by one Richard Pulling Jenks (1808?-1871).

538.1–2
Minnie Temple] Mary Temple (1845–1870), first cousin of Henry James.

539.23–25
Benjamin Paul Blood. . . in regard to it?”] Blood (1832–1919), American poet and philosopher, was a longtime correspondent with William James, whose essay on Blood’s work, “A Pluralistic Mystic” (1910), concludes with the words quoted here, taken from a personal letter to James.

540.1
Reflections on Willa Cather
] This essay is a revised, expanded version of a review of
Willa Cather on Writing
(1949), a posthumous collection of Cather’s literary essays edited by Stephen Tennant. The quotations from Cather used in this piece are drawn from that collection.

540.24
Steichen’s] Portrait of Cather by Edward Steichen (1879–1973), taken in 1926.

541.26
Mrs. Auld] Jessica Cather Auld (1881–1968), younger sister of Willa Cather, in
Willa Cather: A Biographical Sketch
(c. 1949), a pamphlet created by the Knopf publicity department to accompany review copies of
Willa Cather on Writing.

544.35–36
young Mexican painter] Adolfo Best-Maugard (1892–1965), whom Porter met in New York City in 1919.

549.23
Nude. . . Staircase]
Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2
(1912), painting by Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968).

550.17–18
Maxwell. . .
Provincials
]
The Last of the Provincials: The American Novel 1915–1925
(1947) by Maxwell David Geismar (1909–1979).

551.9–12
We must not. . . hungry roots?] Cf. “Goblin Market” (1862) by Christina Rossetti (1830–1894).

551.13
E. K. Brown. . .
Cather
]
Willa Cather: A Critical Biography
(1953) by E. K. Brown, completed by Leon Edel.

555.17
Jacob Boehme] Jakob Böhme (1575–1624), German alchemist and Christian mystic.

558.21
Everybody’s Autobiography
] Prose work by Gertrude Stein (1937) recounting her visit to America following the success of her
Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
(1933); it is the source of all quotations from Stein used in this essay.

558.22
Kahnweiler] Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1884–1979), Paris galleryowner and champion of Cubism.

559.13
Alice B. Toklas] Toklas (1877–1967) met Stein in 1907 and was her devoted partner until Stein’s death in 1947.

559.20
Leo] Leo Stein (1872–1947), art collector and critic.

559.21
Sir Francis Rose] English painter (1909–1979) and illustrator of
Gertrude Stein’s First Reader
(1947).

560.18
transition
] Little magazine (1927–30) published in Paris and edited by the poet and translator Eugene Jolas (1894–1952) with his wife, Maria McDonald Jolas (1893–1987).

564.28
Clarissa Harlowe
]
Clarissa
(1748), epistolary novel by Samuel Richardson (1689–1761).

565.35
Hetty Green] American financier (1834–1916) known as “The Witch of Wall Street” and legendary for her miserliness.

565.36
Jay Laughlin] James Laughlin (1914–1997), founder of New Directions publishers; he brought out an edition of Stein’s
Three Lives
(1907) in 1933.

566.3
G.A.R.] Grand Army of the Republic (1866–1956), fraternal organization for Union veterans of the Civil War.

570.27
Santa Teresa] St. Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582), Spanish mystic and Carmelite reformer.

570.28
William Seabrook] American journalist and adventurer (1884–1945); his impressions of Stein are recorded in
No Hiding Place: An Autobiography
(1942).

575.7
Pavannes and Divisions
] Volume of critical essays (1918) by Ezra Pound (1885–1972).

576.17–18
The poet is married] Pound married the English artist Dorothy Shakespear (1886–1973) in 1914.

577.33–34
Harriet Monroe] Monroe (1860–1936), founder and editor of
Poetry
, a monthly magazine of poetry and criticism published in Chicago since 1912.

580.11
Douglas. . . credit] Social credit, or “socred,” economic theory developed in the 1920s by Scottish engineer C. H. Douglas (1879–1952), who argued that money should be used to improve society.

580.13
Ernestine Evans] American journalist and book editor (1890–1967).