porter: see beer.

Porter, William Sydney: see O. Henry.

Porter, Noah, 1811-92, American educator and philosopher, b. Farmington, Conn., grad. Yale, 1831. He entered the ministry in 1836. In 1846 he became professor of moral philosophy and metaphysics at Yale and from 1871 to 1886 was 12th president of the university. As president he steadfastly opposed modern tendencies in education, urging the retention of Greek and Latin as the basis for the liberal arts course, the subordination of science to the humanities, and a prescribed curriculum rather than an elective system. He edited (1864, 1890) revised editions of Noah Webster's dictionary and wrote a number of educational and philosophical works, the most popular of which was The Human Intellect (1868).

Porter, Katherine Anne, 1890-1980, American author, b. Indian Creek, Tex. Although she published infrequently, she is regarded as a master of the short story. Her first book of stories, Flowering Judas (1930), received immediate recognition and critical acclaim. It was followed by Pale Horse, Pale Rider (1939) and The Leaning Tower (1944). Her stories have been praised for their technical accomplishments in matters of style, form, and language. A collection of her essays and occasional pieces appeared as The Days Before (1952). Her first long novel, Ship of Fools, was published in 1962. Set aboard a German ship shortly before Hitler's accession to power, the novel is a moral allegory that attempts to recreate the atmosphere of a world on the brink of disaster.

Porter, Jane, 1776-1850, Scottish novelist. Her historical novels, particularly Thaddeus of Warsaw (4 vol., 1803) and Scottish Chiefs (5 vol., 1810), were exceptionally popular in their day. Anna Maria Porter, 1780-1832, her sister, wrote The Hungarian Brothers (3 vol., 1807) and other novels.

Porter, Horace, 1837-1921, American soldier and diplomat, b. Huntingdon, Pa. In the Civil War he saw varied service, mostly as an ordnance officer, before becoming (1864) aide-de-camp to Gen. U. S. Grant. After the war, Porter was briefly Assistant Secretary of War when Grant was Secretary of War. During Grant's presidency Porter served as one of his executive secretaries until 1872. He was ambassador to France (1897-1905), where, at his own personal expense, he recovered the body of John Paul Jones for reburial in the United States. As delegate to the Hague Conference of 1907, he amended the Drago Doctrine (see under Drago, Luis María) with his Porter Proposition, which provided that strong nations whose nationals had contract-debt claims against weaker nations should submit the claims to arbitration before trying to collect them by force. He wrote West Point Life (1866; verse) and Campaigning with Grant (1897).

Porter, George, Baron Porter of Luddenham, 1920-2002, British chemist, b. Stainforth, England, grad. Leeds Univ., Ph.D. Cambridge, 1949. After serving as a radar officer during World War II, he did postgraduate research with R. G. W. Norrish at Cambridge. His first problem involved the study, using flow techniques, of free radicals produced in gaseous photochemical reactions. Drawing upon his wartime experience, Porter subsequently conceived the idea of using pulses of light of shorter duration than the lifetime of the free radicals to study those molecules, and constructed an apparatus that he and Norrish applied to the study of gaseous free radicals and of combustion. Their collaboration continued until 1954 when Porter left Cambridge for the Univ. Porter and Norrish shared the 1967 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with German physical chemist Manfred Eigen for their studies of extremely fast chemical reactions. Porter was cited in particular for his work on photochemistry (chemical reactions triggered by light) and flash photolysis (photographing the behavior of molecules during chemical reactions). Porter also excelled presenting complex scientific subjects to the general public, and his BBC broadcasts in the 1960s on "The Laws of Disorder" were very popular. From 1985 to 1990 he was president of the Royal Society. He was knighted in 1972 and was created a life peer in 1990.

Porter, Fitz-John, 1822-1901, Union general in the American Civil War, b. Portsmouth, N.H.; nephew of David Porter. He saw service in the Mexican War and was an instructor at West Point (1849-55). At the outbreak of the Civil War, Porter was made a brigadier general of volunteers. In 1862 he distinguished himself as a corps commander in the Peninsular campaign, especially in the Seven Days battles. Later that year, however, John Pope alleged that the Union defeat in the second battle of Bull Run was due to Porter's disobedience. At his court-martial Porter declared that it was impossible to carry out Pope's orders, but he was, nevertheless, cashiered. A review of the case in 1879 vindicated him. In 1886 he was reappointed colonel of infantry and retired.

Porter, David Dixon, 1813-91, American admiral, b. Chester, Pa.; son of David Porter. He served under his father in the Mexican navy before he was appointed (1829) midshipman in the U.S. navy. He held his first command, the Spitfire, in the Mexican War. From 1850 to 1854, Porter, on leave, commanded passenger and mail ships. In the Civil War he led the mortar flotilla of the Union fleet commanded by David Farragut in the successful assault on New Orleans (1862) and contributed to Ulysses S. Grant's success in the Vicksburg campaign (1863). For these services on the Mississippi River he was made rear admiral. He cooperated (1864) with Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks in the Red River expedition and later was given command of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. In the joint land-sea expedition against Fort Fisher (1864-65), the naval forces were under his direction. Next to Farragut, Porter was the outstanding Union naval commander. As superintendent (1865-69) of the U.S. Naval Academy he proved himself an able organizer and administrator. Porter was promoted to vice admiral in 1866; in 1870, on Farragut's death, he became full admiral.

Porter, David, 1780-1843, American naval officer, b. Boston. Appointed a midshipman in 1798, he served in the West Indies and in the war with Tripoli. In 1803 his ship, the Philadelphia, was captured off the coast of Tripoli, and Porter was a prisoner until peace was declared in 1805. He achieved his greatest success as commander of the Essex in the War of 1812. In that year he captured several British ships carrying troops to Halifax and the British war vessel Alert. Then, accompanied by young David Farragut, he sailed the Essex around the Horn and cruised in the Pacific, warring on British commercial vessels. He took formal possession of Nuku Hiva, one of the Marquesas Islands, in Nov., 1813, but this act was not recognized by the U.S. government. In 1814 the Essex was blockaded by British ships in the harbor of Valparaiso, Chile. Porter escaped to sea, but a squall disabled his ship, forcing him back to the coast. He was attacked by two British warships and after a hard-fought battle was forced to surrender. While in the West Indies in 1824 on an expedition for suppressing piracy, Porter forced the officials of the town of Foxardo (Fajardo), Puerto Rico, to apologize for jailing an officer from his fleet. The government did not sanction Porter's act, and he was court-martialed and suspended for six months. Porter resigned and in 1826 entered the Mexican navy as its head. Disgusted with the jealous intrigues of the Mexican officers, he resigned in 1829. After his return to the United States, he became (1831) chargé d'affaires and later (1839) minister at Constantinople and held this post until his death.

Porter, Cole, 1891-1964, American composer and lyricist, b. Peru, Ind., grad. Yale, 1913. Porter's witty, sophisticated lyrics and his affecting melodies place him high in the ranks of American composers of popular music. He was an elegant and debonair man, in spite of a riding accident (1937) that left him crippled. He studied music at Harvard and with D'Indy at the Schola Cantorum in Paris. After one early failure, most of his musicals were vastly successful. They include Greenwich Village Follies (1924); Gay Divorce (1932); Anything Goes (1934); Jubilee (1935); Red, Hot and Blue (1936); Du Barry Was a Lady (1939); Panama Hattie (1940); Something for the Boys (1943); Kiss Me, Kate (1948); Can-Can (1953); and Silk Stockings (1955). Among Porter's film scores are Born to Dance (1936) and High Society (1956). His most popular songs include "Night and Day," "Begin the Beguine," "Let's Do It," and "In the Still of the Night."

Porter, Arthur Kingsley, 1883-1933, American art historian. Interested primarily in medieval and ancient art, Porter revolutionized the understanding of the chronology and diffusion of Romanesque sculpture. His works include Lombard Architecture (4 vol., 1915-17), Romanesque Sculpture of the Pilgrimage Roads (10 vol., 1923), and Spanish Romanesque Sculpture (2 vol., 1928).

Porter, Anna Maria: see Porter, Jane.

McCumber, Porter James, 1858-1933, American political leader, b. Crete, Ill. He began law practice in North Dakota and served (1885-89) in the territorial legislature. From 1899 to 1923 he was a Republican U.S. Senator. He actively supported the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906). As chairman of the finance committee he had a leading part in the framing of the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act of 1922. He was obliged to agree to high tariffs on industrial goods in order to secure protection for many farm products.

Martin, Archer John Porter, 1910-2002, English biochemist, educated at Cambridge. From 1938 to 1946 he carried on chemical research in the laboratories of the Wool Industries Association at Leeds, Yorkshire. In 1948 he joined the staff of the National Institute for Medical Research, London, where from 1953 to 1956 he was head of the physical chemistry division. After 1956 he was chemical consultant to the institute. A specialist in the development of chromatographic and other methods of chemical analysis, he was awarded jointly with R. L. M. Synge the 1952 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contributions to paper partition chromatography, a method for separating and identifying chemical substances in a mixture.

Barnard, Frederick Augustus Porter, 1809-89, American educator and mathematician, b. Sheffield, Mass., grad. Yale, 1828. After tutoring at Yale and teaching in institutions for the deaf and mute, he joined the faculty of the Univ. of Alabama, serving as professor of mathematics and natural philosophy (1837-48) and as professor of chemistry and natural philosophy (1848-54). From 1854 to 1856 he was professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at the Univ. of Mississippi. He served there as president (1856-58) and chancellor (1858-61), but resigned at the outbreak of the Civil War to return to the North. After a period of research in astronomy and after work as head of the map and chart department of the U.S. Coast Survey, he was selected to succeed Charles King as president of Columbia College (now Columbia Univ.). During his long administration (1864-89), Columbia grew from a small undergraduate college of 150 students into one of the nation's great universities, with an enrollment of 1,500. He was instrumental in expanding the curriculum, adding departments and fostering the development of the School of Mines (founded 1864; now included in the School of Engineering). He extended the elective system and advocated equal educational privileges for men and women. Barnard College, the woman's undergraduate unit of Columbia, was named for him, even though he himself favored coeducation. Barnard was active in founding the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Sciences. He edited Johnson's New Universal Cyclopaedia (1876-78) and wrote many addresses, articles, books, and pamphlets in the fields of mathematics, physics, economics, and education. His annual reports on Columbia, outstanding discussions of the significance of current educational progress, were edited by W. F. Russell in The Rise of a University, Vol. I (1937).

orig. William Sydney Porter

(born Sept. 11, 1862, Greensboro, N.C., U.S.—died June 5, 1910, New York, N.Y.) U.S. short-story writer. He wrote for newspapers and later worked as a bank teller in Texas, where he was convicted of embezzlement; he began writing stories in prison as O. Henry. He moved to New York, where his tales romanticizing the commonplace, particularly the life of ordinary New Yorkers, and often using coincidence and surprise endings, became highly popular. His collections include Cabbages and Kings (1904); The Four Million (1906), including “The Gift of the Magi”; The Trimmed Lamp (1907), including “The Last Leaf”; and Whirligigs (1910), including “The Ransom of Red Chief.”

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(born May 15, 1890, Indian Creek, Texas, U.S.—died Sept. 18, 1980, Silver Spring, Md.) U.S. writer. She worked as a journalist in Chicago and Denver, Colo., before leaving in 1920 for Mexico, the setting of several of her stories. Her collections include Flowering Judas (1930), her first and most popular; Pale Horse, Pale Rider (1939), a set of three novellas; and Collected Short Stories (1965, Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award). Her stories have a richness of texture and complexity of character delineation usually achieved only in the novel. Ship of Fools (1962) is her only novel.

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(born Aug. 31, 1822, Portsmouth, N.H., U.S.—died May 21, 1901, Morristown, N.J.) U.S. army officer. He graduated from West Point and later taught there (1849–55). In the American Civil War he was made a brigadier general of volunteers. In the Second Battle of Bull Run he served under Gen. John Pope, who blamed Porter for the Union's defeat. At his court-martial, Porter claimed that Pope's orders were confusing and impossible to execute, but he was found guilty and cashiered. In 1879 he won a review of his case, which supported his claim of innocence. In 1886 he was reappointed an army officer and placed, at his own request, on the retired list.

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(born June 8, 1813, Chester, Pa., U.S.—died Feb. 13, 1891, Washington, D.C.) U.S. naval officer. He served under his father, David Porter, in the West Indies and in the Mexican navy before joining the U.S. Navy in 1829. Promoted to commander in the American Civil War, he served under his foster brother, David Farragut, to help win the Battle of New Orleans. In 1863 he succeeded in running his fleet past the Confederate fort at Vicksburg to meet Ulysses S. Grant's troops and complete the effort to open the Mississippi River to Union forces. After the war he served as superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy (1865–69) and was promoted to admiral (1870).

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(born Feb. 1, 1780, Boston, Mass., U.S.—died March 3, 1843, Pera, Tur.) U.S. naval officer. He joined the navy (1798) and served in the Tripolitan War. In the War of 1812 he commanded the Essex, the first U.S. warship to operate in the Pacific Ocean; he captured several British whaling vessels and took possession of Nuku Hiva, the largest of the Marquesas Islands (1813). He was blockaded by British frigates in Valparaíso, Chile, where he surrendered (1814). He served on the board of naval commissioners (1815–23) and commanded a squadron to suppress piracy in the West Indies (1823–25). For unauthorized action against Spanish authorities in Puerto Rico, he was court-martialed and suspended from duty. He resigned in 1826 and became commander of the Mexican navy (1826–29).

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(born May 15, 1890, Indian Creek, Texas, U.S.—died Sept. 18, 1980, Silver Spring, Md.) U.S. writer. She worked as a journalist in Chicago and Denver, Colo., before leaving in 1920 for Mexico, the setting of several of her stories. Her collections include Flowering Judas (1930), her first and most popular; Pale Horse, Pale Rider (1939), a set of three novellas; and Collected Short Stories (1965, Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award). Her stories have a richness of texture and complexity of character delineation usually achieved only in the novel. Ship of Fools (1962) is her only novel.

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(born Aug. 31, 1822, Portsmouth, N.H., U.S.—died May 21, 1901, Morristown, N.J.) U.S. army officer. He graduated from West Point and later taught there (1849–55). In the American Civil War he was made a brigadier general of volunteers. In the Second Battle of Bull Run he served under Gen. John Pope, who blamed Porter for the Union's defeat. At his court-martial, Porter claimed that Pope's orders were confusing and impossible to execute, but he was found guilty and cashiered. In 1879 he won a review of his case, which supported his claim of innocence. In 1886 he was reappointed an army officer and placed, at his own request, on the retired list.

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(born Feb. 1, 1780, Boston, Mass., U.S.—died March 3, 1843, Pera, Tur.) U.S. naval officer. He joined the navy (1798) and served in the Tripolitan War. In the War of 1812 he commanded the Essex, the first U.S. warship to operate in the Pacific Ocean; he captured several British whaling vessels and took possession of Nuku Hiva, the largest of the Marquesas Islands (1813). He was blockaded by British frigates in Valparaíso, Chile, where he surrendered (1814). He served on the board of naval commissioners (1815–23) and commanded a squadron to suppress piracy in the West Indies (1823–25). For unauthorized action against Spanish authorities in Puerto Rico, he was court-martialed and suspended from duty. He resigned in 1826 and became commander of the Mexican navy (1826–29).

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(born June 8, 1813, Chester, Pa., U.S.—died Feb. 13, 1891, Washington, D.C.) U.S. naval officer. He served under his father, David Porter, in the West Indies and in the Mexican navy before joining the U.S. Navy in 1829. Promoted to commander in the American Civil War, he served under his foster brother, David Farragut, to help win the Battle of New Orleans. In 1863 he succeeded in running his fleet past the Confederate fort at Vicksburg to meet Ulysses S. Grant's troops and complete the effort to open the Mississippi River to Union forces. After the war he served as superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy (1865–69) and was promoted to admiral (1870).

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