Flowering Judas, and Other Stories is Katherine Anne Porter’s first collection of published short stories, originally released in 1930 and then revised with the addition of a few new stories five years later. Since that initial publication, one of the stories has gone on to become, by far, Porter’s most anthologized work. “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” is one of those stories which nearly student in America has been assigned to read and write about at one point or another in their academic careers.
The title of the collection shares its name with one of the stories and it is a very appropriate choice. The flowering Judas tree to which it refers is an ancient symbol of betrayal; said to be the species from which Judas hanged himself after betraying Jesus Christ. The one overarching theme which can be fairly said to touch upon every single story in one way or another is betrayal. Other links between stories include some being set in Mexico, the recurrence of strong women dominating weak mean, Catholic imagery and traditional values being rejected with little of substance to offer as an alternative.
Flowering Judas, and Other Stories is Katherine Anne Porter’s first collection of published short stories, originally released in 1930 and then revised with the addition of a few new stories five years later. Since that initial publication, one of the stories has gone on to become, by far, Porter’s most anthologized work. “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” is one of those stories which nearly student in America has been assigned to read and write about at one point or another in their academic careers.
The title of the collection shares its name with one of the stories and it is a very appropriate choice. The flowering Judas tree to which it refers is an ancient symbol of betrayal; said to be the species from which Judas hanged himself after betraying Jesus Christ. The one overarching theme which can be fairly said to touch upon every single story in one way or another is betrayal. Other links between stories include some being set in Mexico, the recurrence of strong women dominating weak mean, Catholic imagery and traditional values being rejected with little of substance to offer as an alternative.
Porter’s first published short story opens the collection. “Maria Concepcion” was published in Century Magazine in December 1922, some six months after she finished it. The strange and disturbing “He” followed in 1927 and the deeply symbolic “Rope” appeared one year later. The original 1930 publication was a limited edition of just 600 copies. When the second full-printing edition hit bookstores in 1935 it was an expanded version that included everything in the limited edition version plus “Theft,” “That Tree,” “The Cracked Looking-Glass,” and “Hacienda.”
Already 40 years old when the first edition was published, Porter had enjoyed a varied and exciting life that included visiting Mexico and becoming an excited and vocal proponent of the Revolution and a subsequent disenchantment with the failure to live up to its promise. She also marched and wrote in support of the innocence of (wrongly) accused anarchist bombers Sacco and Vanzetti, suffered through several failed marriages and romances, reviewed books for several high-profile New York periodicals and newspapers and periodically announced updates on a biography of Cotton Mather which never did materialize.
With the publication of Flowering Judas and Other Stories, Porter was officially recognized and accepted into the elite of American literature, enjoying friendships with everyone from William Faulkner to Diego River while enjoying comparisons to everyone from Eudora Welty to Truman Capote. Between the first and second editions of her collection, she also had an infamous parting of her friendship with writer Hart Crane. Several of the famous people whom she encountered would later wind up fictionalized into her stories such as the title character in “The Martyr” who it has been alleged was based on muralist Diego Rivera.
