My Life with Charlie Brown

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Pale Horse, Pale Rider
by Katherine Anne Porter

Seven young men took part in the assassination plot that destroyed
the life of the Archduke Ferdinand, and hurled the nations into the
monstrous conflict we call World War I. All seven of these young
men were ill with tuberculosis. It has been said that fever has a way
of coloring one’s view, and in their case it helped drive them toward
what they believed to be an heroic end. Another disease brought
fever and death to millions of people by the time the great conflict
was over, for an epidemic of influenza went around the world taking
its toll from all classes, races, and ages. The origin of the 1918 pan-
demic of influenza is shrouded in obscurity. Some medical authori-
ties doubt that a single starting point ever existed. As early as 1916–
1917 numerous cases of “purulent bronchitis” were observed among
the British troops at a base in France. This outbreak was considered
to be somewhat dependent on the exceptionally cold weather of that
period. The earliest recorded outbreak in the United States seems to
have been at Camp Funston in Kansas, although the general belief
was that it had started in Boston and worked its way across the
country. The last-arriving American troops in France quickly spread
the disease through the A.E.F. The troopship Leviathan docked on a
particular day at Brest with ten thousand men aboard, four thou-
sand of them stricken. At Camp Pontanezen in France, out of sixty-
five thousand soldiers, twelve thousand were down with the flu at
the same time. Americans in this camp were dying at the rate of two

181

182 ap pe nd ix

hundred and fifty per day. By the time the epidemic was over in 1919,
twenty million people in all parts of the world had died following
influenza infection.
In Pale Horse, Pale Rider twenty-four year old Miranda, writer for
a newspaper, becomes aware of a “burning slow headache” as she is
taking her morning bath. She remembers “she had waked up with it
and it had in fact begun the evening before.” Fever colors Miranda’s
view of the next few days, and we are presented also with a series
of her dreams which serve in a remarkable way to take us along the
paths of torment she is to suffer.
Although Miranda and Adam, the soldier in the story, refer to
them as part of an old negro hymn, the pale horse and the pale
rider in the novel are the figures mentioned in the Sixth Chapter of
the Book of Revelations. “When he opened the fourth seal, I heard
the voice of the fourth living creature say, ‘Come!’ And I saw, and
behold, a pale horse, and its rider’s name was Death, and Hades fol-
lowed him, and they were given power over a fourth of the earth,
to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild
beasts of the earth.” This rider brings not meaningless destruction,
but destruction which serves the purpose of the justice of God. He
is what we might call a divine administrator. One quarter of the
earth is to feel his power so that the remainder might witness the
events and thus be led to repent. In the Goodspeed translation of
the New Testament the horse is described as being the “color of
ashes.” Moffatt claims it is “livid.” Other translations call it “green-
ish yellow” which may account for the description of the stranger in
the first dream in the opening passages of the novel.
In this dream, Miranda is in her room in the great farm house
where she grew up. She is anxious to arise before the rest of the fam-
ily in order to avoid entanglements which are only hinted at. She is
aware of Death, “that lank greenish stranger” who hangs about the
place, and she chooses to try to outrun him on horseback. The dream
takes on nightmarish qualities as the stranger rides easily alongside
her regarding her with a stare that indicates he can bide his time. She

Pale Horse, Pale Rider, Katherine Anne Porter 183

awakes as she shouts to him to ride on. “She is not going with him
this time!” This is a dream of ill omen, and it suggests some of the
troubles to come.
Most of the action in the novel takes place between the first and
second dreams. Miranda is finding it difficult to cope with the prob-
lems faced by women during wartime. She lives on a very meager sal-
ary, and is pestered by committeemen who insist that she dedicate
a portion of that salary towards the purchase of a Liberty bond. She
has become very fond of a young officer named Adam who is from
Texas. Like all soldiers he is living an intermission, and rather enjoys
speculating about his chances of surviving in combat. For Adam,
who is on leave, the days are free of responsibility, but for Miranda
everything seems terribly wrong. They go for many walks together,
and on one of these walks they view three different funerals passing
by. Miranda begins to feel only “half awake.” The disease that has
moved around the world has descended upon her. “She wanted to
say, ‘Adam, come out of your dream and listen to me. I have pains in
my chest and my head and my heart and they’re real. I am in pain all
over, and you are in such danger as I can’t bear to think about, and
why can we not save each other?’”
Miranda’s second dream gives us an indication of the extent of
her illness. She dreams of being in the cold mountains in the snow.
This changes suddenly to a desire for warmth, and then the peaceful
scenes of all the rivers she had ever known. But this is interrupted by
the sight of a tall sailing ship with a gangplank running down to the
foot of her bed. A slight sense of fear creeps over her as she notices a
jungle behind the ship. Nevertheless, she runs down the gangplank,
boards the ship, and is able to observe herself lying in bed. She sails
off into the jungle, and is finally awakened by jungle noises which
turn into words that cry, “danger, danger, danger” and “war, war,
war.” Adam and her landlady are arguing about Miranda’s remaining
in the apartment.
Adam risks his own health by staying to care for her. This
accounts partially for his entering her dreams for the first time in

184 ap pe nd ix

her third recorded dream. She is in a small green wood that con-
tains “inhuman concealed voices singing sharply like the whine of
arrows.” She sees Adam struck by these “singing arrows.” He falls
back, rises unwounded, is struck again and rises unwounded once
more. Miranda attempts to block the flight of arrows with her own
body, and as they pass through her heart, they continue on through
his body. This third time he falls, but does not rise. She awakens
screaming, and we have learned of the great depth of her feelings for
Adam.
Her fourth dream is full of hospital images. Whiteness and
silence, tall shadows moving behind a wide screen of sheets spread
upon a frame, dark figures bowing, speechless figures in white, and
a pallid white fog floating before her eyes. The seriousness of her
illness is brought out by the torment of her dreams as it continues
with the image of two white-clad executioners “pushing between
them with marvelously deft and practical hands” a helpless old man
who pleads for his life. The one doctor whom she met before being
taken away in the ambulance, Dr. Hildesheim, becomes a hideous
figure, a skull beneath a German helmet, and he is carrying an infant
impaled on a bayonet which he throws into a well along with a pot
of poison. The well is one she remembers from her father’s farm, and
again she awakens screaming.
She is now delirious when awake, and sees the nurse’s hands as
white tarantulas.
The fifth and final dream moves her closer toward death. Her
internal torment is made up of words like “oblivion,” eternity,” and
a “pit that is bottomless.” Images of childhood are recalled to help
turn away the call of death. Then, a stubborn will to live enters her
dream. She is taken to a landscape of sea and sand. A great company
of human beings, all the living she has ever known, comes toward
her. She moves among them in a great “quietude of her ecstasy.” Sud-
denly, a tremor of apprehension is felt. She has lost something, but
she doesn’t know what it is. “We have forgotten the dead, oh, the

Pale Horse, Pale Rider, Katherine Anne Porter 185

dead, where are they?” This time she awakens with the smell of death
in her own body.
Miranda lives. One morning she finds herself waking from a
dreamless sleep to hear the sound of bells, horns, and whistles. The
war is over! There were no radios to spread the news. It got around
slowly, but gradually spread along the Eastern seaboard and then
westward. President Wilson issued the statement: “The Armistice
was signed this morning. Everything for which America fought has
been accomplished. It will now be our fortunate duty to assist by
example.” Miranda goes through the mail that has accumulated by
her beside during her month’s stay in the hospital, and finds a letter
from a friend of Adam informing her that Adam has died of influ-
enza while in camp. The pale rider has done his work.

Unpublished typescript dated May 24, 1965.

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A Poem for Jeannie

You hurried by
and caught my eye
And love sat near
“My name is Jeannie”
“I’m so glad that you like me”
And the square at Ghirardelli
and love moved closer
Can two people kiss
In the sun among the crowd
While others pay no mind
and love moves closer?
You hurried by
and caught my eye
And love joined us forever.

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Index

A Boucher, John, 117
Abel, Robert H., 111 Boy Named Charlie Brown, A, 33
Amsterdam, Netherlands, 47 Brahms, Johannes, 155
Anderson, Indiana, 120 Briggs, Clare, 6
Art Instruction Schools, Inc., 12, 14, Bringing Up Father, 114
British Honduras, 27
15–17, 86, 91, 127, 148 Brown, Charlie, 15
Art of Walt Disney, The, 9 Buck Rogers, 164
Burton, Richard, 58–59
B Bushmiller, Ernie, 133
Baltes, Roman, 14–15, 16
Barney Google, 114 C
Bartlett’s Quotations, 136 California, 36, 41, 91, 153
Basel, Switzerland, 47 Camp Campbell, Kentucky, 12, 13
Baxter, Anne, 152 Canada, 44
Beattie, Bruce, 126 Caniff, Milton, 6
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 46, 82, 154–55, Capp, Al, 6, 115, 133, 139
Captain Easy, 6, 115
165, 173, 174 Caribbean, 27
Beetle Bailey, 133 Casals, Rosie, 44
Berg, Patty, 41 Cathy, 64
Berkeley. See University of California Charlie Brown, 8, 11, 13, 15, 19, 20, 27,

at Berkeley 32, 35, 50, 58, 60, 64, 82, 83, 93, 94,
Berlioz, Hector, 18 95, 97, 99, 116, 117, 121, 136, 137, 142,
Bible, 21, 35; Book of John, 30–31; 147–49, 151, 153–54, 157, 158, 160–61,
164, 168, 172–76
Philippians, 25; Romans, 26 Château Malvoisin, 57–58
Big Little Book, 6 Chicago, Illinois, 17, 32
Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown, 58 Chicago Sun, 17
Boston University’s Communication

Research Center, 111
Boucher, Connie, 117

189

190 ind e x

Chicago Tribune, 130 Finland, 44
Christmas, 30, 37–40, 47, 134, 138 Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 72, 136
Cleveland, Ohio, 18 For Better or For Worse, 64
Colorado Springs, Colorado, 91 Ford Motor Company, 102, 117–20
“Comics as Non-Art, The,” 115 Fort Snelling, Minnesota, 12
Comics Council, 111 Free Press of Glencoe, 111
Commander of Arts and Letters Freeman, Jim, 18, 116, 131
Frieda, 15, 157, 171
Award, 57 Funnies: An American Idiom, The, 111
Crane, Roy, 6, 115, 132–33
Creative Associates, 90 G
Creative Developments, 33 Gauvreau, Emilie, 71–72
Crosby, Kathy, 68 Gilburt, Harry, 116
Crosby, Percy, 133, 158 Gillespie, Sarah, 131, 136
Crosby Pro-Am, 47, 67–68 Gospel According to Peanuts, The, 159,
Czechoslovakia, 44
162
D Gospel Trumpet, 120
Dachau, Germany, 20 Grand Canyon, 97
Dayton, Ohio, 99 Great Gatsby, The, 72
D-day, 134–35 Gretzky, Wayne, 51
Delgado, Evelyn, 90
Determined Productions, 117 H
Dick Tracy, 129 Hallmark Cards, 120
Dille, John, Jr., 17 Hans Brinker, 71
Dinah Shore golf tournament, 127 Happiness Is a Warm Puppy, 24–25, 117
Disney, Walt, 6, 85 “happiness is a warm puppy,” 3
Ditzen, Walt, 17, 32 Harold in Italy, 18
Dodger Stadium, 53 Harry, 11
Doge, Mary M., 71 Hayward, Susan, 152
Donald Duck, 85 Hennessy, Jim, 116, 117, 121
Highland Park, 10, 67, 148
E Holland, 71
Eakins, Thomas, 27 Hollywood, California, 109, 160
Eisenhower, Dwight D., 135 Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 117
Emmy Awards, 126 Hurd, Jud, 32, 36

F J
Federal Schools. See Art Instruction J. Walter Thompson Company, 117
Japan, 20, 44
Schools, Inc.

ind e x 191

Jeopardy, 64 Melendez, Bill, 33, 138, 171
Jesus Christ, 21, 24–25, 30, 138 Mendelson, Lee, 33, 137, 138
Joe Cool, 64, 155 MetLife, 68
Jones, Bobby, 10, 67 Mickey Mouse, 6, 85, 172
José Peterson, 148 Miller, Johnny, 68
“Just Keep Laughing,” 16 Minneapolis, Minnesota, 8, 12, 15,

K 18–19, 65, 85, 86, 91, 217, 130, 164
Kelly, Walt, 115 Minneapolis Symphony, 65
King, Billie Jean, 44 Miss Othmar, 161–62, 169
Knight, Tack, 116 Molly Volley, 175
Krazy Kat, 6, 114 Monterey, California, 67
Monterey Peninsula Country Club, 67
L Moon Mullins, 114
Lee Mendelson Film Productions, 121 Munich, Germany, 20
Li’l Abner, 133 Mutts, 64
Li’l Folks, 17, 116 My Last Million Readers, 71–72
Linus, 15, 20, 25, 26, 27, 30, 53, 82,
N
97–99, 130, 135, 138, 147, 148, 155–57, National Cartoonists Society, 131
160, 161, 168, 169, 173, 174 National Newspaper Syndicate, 17
Little red-headed girl, 157, 169 NEA, 18
Lockhart, Warren, 33, 90 Needles, California, 5, 58, 175
London, England, 47 Nelson, Ron, 90
Lost Patrol, The, 6 New Haven, Connecticut, 171
Louvre, 57 New Testament, 162
Lucy, 26, 27, 51, 82, 83, 94, 97–99, 116, New York, 18, 87, 97, 100, 109, 111
117, 147, 148, 153, 156, 168, 173, New Yorker, The, 64
174–75 Newspaper Comics Council Inc., 111
Luke, 30 Normandy, France, 47
Lytle, Pat, 90 Northern Exposure, 64

M O
Maddocks School, 10 Oklahoma, 98
Marcie, 94, 134, 135, 136, 149, 174 Old Testament, 162
Marich, Peter, 67 Omaha Beach, France, 47, 134, 136
Maurer, Linus, 148 Out Our Way, 169
Maxim’s, 57
Mays, Willie, 121 P
McLaglen, Victor, 6 Pale Horse, Pale Rider, 61–64, 181–85

192 ind e x

Palmer, Arnold, 175 Rommel, Erwin, 134–35
Paris, France, 57, 135 Rose, Carl, 35
Park Theater, 150 Rose Is Rose, 64
Paro, Minette, 7 Rosebud, 35
Paul, 27 Rouen, France, 47, 57–58
Peabody Award, 126 Rutman, Larry, 116, 117, 131
Peanuts, 3, 7, 9, 14, 26, 32, 35, 46, 5,758,
S
59, 60, 83, 85, 86, 91, 95, 96,010–2, Sacramento, California, 5
116, 117, 120, 121, 129, 134, 139, 142, Saint Mary’s College, 26
147–51, 154, 157–58, 160–62, 165, Saint Stephen, 27
168, 171, 173 Sally, 50, 52–53, 64, 99, 100, 152–53,
Peanuts Datebook, 117
Pebble Beach, California, 67, 68 174–76
Peppermint Patty, 16, 52, 61, 94, 134, San Francisco, California, 117
135, 148–49, 174 Santa Rosa, California, 89, 126, 127
Perelman, S. J., 125 Saturday Evening Post, 16, 86, 116, 142
Peter, 30–31 Schroeder, 16, 51–52, 82, 83, 94, 147,
Picasso, Pablo, 46, 138
Playboy, 139 148, 154–55, 158–59, 173, 174–75
“Poem for Jeannie, A,” 187 Schulz, Amy, 154, 156
Pogo, 133, 172 Schulz, Carl, 5–6, 8, 12–13, 58, 85,
Polking, Kirk, 116
Polly and Her Pals, 114 91, 168
Popeye, 6, 85, 114, 164 Schulz, Craig, 155, 156
Poppy Hill’s Golf Course, 68 Schulz, Dena, 5, 8, 12, 20
Porter, Katherine Anne, 61–64, 181–85 Schulz, Jeannie, 61, 64, 187
Puerta Vallarta, Mexico, 58 Schulz, Jill, 154, 156
Schulz, Meredith, 148, 154, 174
R Schulz, Monte, 152–53, 155
Reagan, Ronald, 153 Sea of Tiberius, 30
Red Baron. See Snoopy Sebastopol, California, 21
Redwood City, California, 98 “security blanket,” 3, 121
Redwood Empire Ice Arena, 33 Seldes, Gilbert, 114
Remagen, Germany, 47 Seven Dwarfs, 9
Rembrandt, 155 Shakespeare, William, 155
Reuben Awards, 126 Shapiro, Arnold, 120
Rhine, the, 47 Sherlock Holmes, 6
Robinson, Edward J., 114 Shermy, 7
Rogers, Buck, 6 Short, Robert, 35, 159, 162
Silas Marner, 39–40
Skippy, 158, 164

ind e x 193

Sladky, Judy, 134 Wash Tubbs, 6
Sniffy, 9 Watterson, Bill, 138
Snoopy, 3, 8–9, 26, 32, 35, 41–45, 57, 68, West Orange, New Jersey, 99
White, David Manning, 111, 114
82, 94, 121, 123, 124, 134, 135, 147, “Who Reads the Funnies and Why,” 114
149–50, 155, 157, 158–60, 164, 165, Wichita, Kansas, 41
169, 171–73, 175, 176 Williams, Hank, 156–57
Snoopy Come Home, 33 Williams, J. R., 6
Sopwith Camels, 26, 155, 175 Wilwerding, Walter J., 15, 129
Spike, 8–9, 58, 175 Wimbledon, 47, 175
St. Paul, Minnesota, 5, 8, 9–10, 12, 13, Wimpy, 6
17, 18, 20–21, 37–39,14, 47, 58, 67, 85, Wing, Frank, 15, 17, 129
86, 130, 148, 150, 164 Woodstock, 160, 172
St. Paul Central High School, 7 World War I, 155, 175
St. Paul Pioneer Press, 8, 17, 164 World War II, 6, 13, 14, 21, 47, 57, 61,
Stockton, California, 98
Strauss, Johann, II, 154 86, 108
Writer’s Yearbook, 116
T Wyeth, Andrew, 138
Taylor, Elizabeth, 58–59
“Three Little Pigs, The,” 6, 85 Y
Thurber, James, 172 Yankee Stadium, 53
Tim Tyler’s Luck, 6 “Yesterdays,” 15
Timeless Topix, 14–15, 16 Yosemite Sam, 138
Tolstoy, Leo, 136 Young, Faron, 157
Turner, Janine, 64 You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, 138
20th Armored Division, 20 Youth, 120
Twin Cities, Minnesota, 5, 12, 13

U

United Feature Syndicate, 18–19, 35,
86, 100, 116–17, 120, 129

United Media, 127
United States Hockey League, 41
University of California at Berkeley, 98
University of Minnesota, 153

W
Wade, Virginia, 44
Walker, Mort, 133