O. Henry
Such volumes as
Cabbages and Kings
(1904) and
The Four Million
(1906) collect short stories, noted for their often surprising endings, of American writer William Sydney Porter, who used the pen name O. Henry.
His biography shows where he found inspiration for his characters. His era produced their voices and his language.
Mother of three-year-old Porter died from tuberculosis. He left school at fifteen years of age and worked for five years in drugstore of his uncle and then for two years at a Texas sheep ranch.
In 1884, he went to Austin, where he worked in a real estate office and a church choir and spent four years as a draftsman in the general land office. His wife and firstborn died, but daughter Margaret survived him.
He failed to establish a small humorous weekly and afterward worked in poorly-run bank. When its accounts balanced not, people blamed and fired him.
In Houston, he worked for a few years until, ordered to stand trial for embezzlement, he fled to New Orleans and thence Honduras.
Two years later, he returned on account of illness of his wife. Apprehended, Porter served a few months more than three years in a penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio. During his incarceration, he composed ten short stories, including
A Blackjack Bargainer
,
The Enchanted Kiss
, and
The Duplicity of Hargraves
.
In 1899, McClure's published
Whistling Dick's Christmas Story
and
Georgia's Ruling
.
In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he sent manuscripts to New York editors. In the spring of 1902, Ainslee's Magazine offered him a regular income if he moved to New York.
In less than eight years, he became a bestselling author of collections of short stories. Cabbages and Kings came first in 1904 The Four Million, and
The Trimmed Lamp
and
Heart of the West
followed in 1907, and
The Voice of the City
in 1908,
Roads of Destiny
and
Options
in 1909,
Strictly Business
and
Whirligigs
in 1910 followed.
Posthumously published collections include
The Gentle Grafter
about the swindler, Jeff Peters;
Rolling Stones
,
Waifs and Strays
, and in 1936, unsigned stories, followed.
People rewarded other persons financially more.
A Retrieved Reformation
about the safe-cracker Jimmy Valentine got $250; six years later, $500 for dramatic rights, which gave over $100,000 royalties for playwright Paul Armstrong. Many stories have been made into films.
“[A]ll of life, as we know it, moves in little, unavailing circles. More justly than to anything else, it can be likened to the game of baseball. Crack! we hit the ball, and away we go. If we earn a run (in life we call it success) we get back to the home plate and sit upon a bench. If we are thrown out, we walk back to the home plate -- and sit upon a bench.”
“Greenwich Village... the village of low rents and high arts.”
“Oh, I know what to do when I see victuals coming toward me in little old Bagdad-on-the-Subway. I strike the asphalt three times with my forehead and get ready to spiel yarns for my supper.”
“Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence”
“Oh, come off your perch!" said the other man, who wore glasses. "Your premises won't come out in the wash. You wind-jammers who apply bandy-legged theories to concrete categorical syllogisms send logical conclusions skallybootin' into the infinitesimal ragbag. You can't pull my leg with an old sophism with whiskers on it.”
“Each of us, when our day's work is done, must seek our ideal, whether it be love or pinochle or lobster à la Newburg, or the sweet silence of the musty bookshelves.”
“Well, little old Noisyville-on-the Subway is good enough for me.”
“It'll be a great place if they ever finish it.”
“She hadbecome so thoroughly annealed into his life that she was like theair he breathed--necessary but scarcely noticed.”
“There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.”
“Life is full of sniffles sobs and smiles. With sniffles predominating.”
“He studied cities as women study their reflections.”
“I'll give you the whole secret to short story writing. Here it is. Rule 1: Write stories that please yourself. There is no Rule 2.”
“It couldn't have happened anywhere but in little old New York.”
“You sold a story last week," said Pettit, "about a gun fight in an Arizona mining town in which the hero drew his Colt's .45 and shot seven bandits as fast as they came in the door. Now, if a six-shooter could—""Oh, well," said I, "that's different. Arizona is a long way from New York. I could have a man stabbed with a lariat or chased by a pair of chaparreras if I wanted to, and it wouldn't be noticed until the usual error-sharp from around McAdams Junction isolates the erratum and writes in to the papers about it." (from "The Plutonian Fire")”
“But the best, in my opinion, was the home life in the little flat--the ardent, voluble chats after the day's study; the cozy dinners and fresh, light breakfasts; the interchange of ambitions--ambitions interwoven each with the other's or else inconsiderable--the mutual help and inspiration; and--overlook my artlessness--stuffed olives and cheese sandwiches at 11 p.m.”
“I hate it as one hates sin or pestilence or--the color work in a ten-cent magazine.”
“Pull up the shades so I can see New York. I don't want to go home in the dark.”
“It was beautiful and simple, as truly great swindles are.”
“Turn up the lights —I don't want to go home in the dark.”
“We can't buy one minute of time with cash; if we could, rich people would live longer.”
“Life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.”
“I wanted to paint a picture some day that people would stand before and forget that it was made of paint. I wanted it to creep into them like a bar of music and mushroom there like a soft bullet.”
“The most notable thing about Time is that it is so purely relative. A large amount of reminiscence is, by common consent, conceded to the drowning man; and it is not past belief that one may review an entire courtship while removing one's gloves.”
“The true adventurer goes forth aimless and uncalculating to meet and greet unknown fate. ”
“All of us have to be prevaricators, hypocrites, and liars every day of our lives; otherwise the social structure would fall into pieces the first day. We must act in one another's presence just as we must wear clothes. It is for the best”
“He seemed to be made of sunshine and blood-red tissue and clear weather.”
“No friendship is an accident. ”