This book is the story of a life as its holder perceived it. Here is the life, as she recalled it, of a great writer of fiction, of Ship of Fools, of "Leaning Tower," of the miraculous Miranda stories. Her fiction came so much from her life, from her observations, from her insecurities, fears and obsessions, that sometimes it is difficult to find the line between the fiction and the life. It was apparently so for her as well, as is clear in the Miranda stories and in her autobiographical recollections of her mother's death (see page 3). The lines between the life of the imagination and the life of Katherine Anne Porter blurred and melded. The result is in your hands. It is not unlike the notebooks of a psychoanalyst, I presume, in that there is here the revelation of the life perceived by the subject, not always the life that was led. In any event, I hope this presents a balanced view of the world of Katherine Anne Porter. - Author's note.