Katherine Anne Porter was a free-spirited American writer in the early 20th century who drew from her own unconventional life experiences in her characters and stories. She married five times and had many lovers, traveling widely to places like Mexico and Germany at a time when women were usually expected to stay at home. Her works such as Pale Horse Pale Rider, Fig Tree, and Holiday explored themes of death, evil, love, hatred, independence, and resistance to change through characters that paralleled her own independent nature.