Katherine Anne Porter was born in Indian Creek, Texas, on May 15, 1890. The death of her mother when Porter was two years old and subsequent neglect from her father had an impact on Porter’s upbringing; she was raised primarily by her paternal grandmother and moved towns several times throughout her childhood and adolescence. During her first marriage at age 16, she converted to Roman Catholicism. Throughout her life, Porter took on many professional roles, including journalism, short story, novel, and essay writing, political activism, and stints in the film industry. In 1915, she contracted tuberculosis, and it was during this time that she decided to become a writer. A few years later, influenza nearly killed her, and this experience was recounted in her 1939 collection of novellas, Pale Horse, Pale Rider.

Porter’s travels and life experiences motivated much of her writing. Her first trip to Europe in 1931 inspired the novel Ship of Fools (1962). Earlier, in 1920, Porter first traveled to Mexico to work for a publisher and immersed herself in Mexican culture. This trip coincided with Obregon’s revolution—a central focus of “Flowering Judas.” Between 1920 and 1930, Porter lived in Mexico for short periods and supported the Socialist cause.