“It simply divided my life, cut across it like that. So that everything before that was just getting ready, and after that I was in some strange way altered.” That’s how Katherine Anne Porter described living through the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic while working as a journalist in Denver. These experiences informed her semi-autobiographical 1939 short novel, “Pale Horse, Pale Rider,” a searing depiction of the twin ravages of a deadly virus and a world war on a country desperate to escape both.
“It simply divided my life, cut across it like that. So that everything before that was just getting ready, and after that I was in some strange way altered.” That’s how Katherine Anne Porter described living through the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic while working as a journalist in Denver. These experiences informed her semi-autobiographical 1939 short novel, “Pale Horse, Pale Rider,” a searing depiction of the twin ravages of a deadly virus and a world war on a country desperate to escape both.
