Harrison Paul Porter was born July 29, 1921, in Houston, Texas, the second of the four children of Constance Eve Ingalls Porter and Harry Ray Porter. His father, also known as Harrison Paul Porter, was Katherine Anne Porter's brother. Mr. Porter's siblings were Dorothy Rae, Constance Elita, and Charles Boone.
He graduated from John H. Reagan High School in Houston in 1939, served in the army in Europe in World War II, then attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). There, he majored in general studies and wrote movie and dance reviews and political columns for the university newspaper. He also met Salka Viertel, who wrote some of Greta Garbo's early films. Mr. Porter left UCLA to write movies with Viertel. After this project failed, Mr. Porter returned to Houston and worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad as a claims adjuster. In 1960, he began work in New York City as an executive assistant to David Muss, Chairman of the Board of the Muss-Tankoos Corporation, which builds and manages shopping malls. He retired from Muss-Tankoos in 1986. From 1987 to 1997, he lived in Austin, Texas. He relocated to Houston, Texas, in May 1997. Paul Porter died July 28, 2012, in Houston.
Mr. Porter met Katherine Anne Porter in Houston in 1937, and they became devoted to one another. They shared interests in music, art, and writing, and he often sought her advice on books and music. They began corresponding when Porter returned to Louisiana in 1938 and continued to do so very frequently until Porter was no longer able to correspond. Some of her letters to him were published in Mademoiselle as "Letters to a Nephew: Observations on--Pets, Poets, Sex, Love, Hate, Fame, Treason" in April 1966. She encouraged him to write and critiqued his works; two of his short stories were published in Accent in 1951. He also published book and dance reviews in the Houston Post and the New York Herald Tribune . He eventually decided to pursue a more stable, practical career in business.
Mr. Porter was frequently involved in the practical matters of Katherine Anne's life; he found her new homes and moved her possessions when she was unable to do so. He became Katherine Anne Porter's legal guardian in 1977. Porter had become incapable of managing her own affairs; her behavior was erratic and she had begun to give valuable possessions to strangers. When he wrote her that the court had granted him the guardianship, she became angry and accused him of trying to mistreat her. He spent the years of the guardianship struggling to manage her complex financial, legal, and literary matters while keeping his job at Muss-Tankoos. He moved her to Carriage Hill Nursing Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, in March 1980, where she died that September. Mr. Porter remained legally in charge of Porter's affairs until 1981; the estate was at last settled in 1985.
From the guide to the Paul Porter papers, 1903-2009, 1977-2002, (Literature and Rare Books)
