Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980) was an American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist. Her only novel, Ship of Fools (1962), based on her reminiscences of a 1931 ocean cruise she had taken from Mexico to Germany, was the best-selling novel in America of the year, though her short stories received even more critical acclaim; in 1966 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the U.S. National Book Award for The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter. That year she was also appointed to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

During the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, Porter enjoyed a prominent reputation as one of America’s most distinguished writers, but her limited output and equally-limited sales had her living on grants and advances for most of the era.