North Carolina boasts many famous citizens and I have decided to make some of my threads on some of these outstanding people. Because the Christmas season is fast approaching, one of my very favorite stories at this time of year was written by the first person I have chosen, William Sidney Porter, otherwise known as:
O. HENRY
Born William Sidney Porter, this master of short stories is much better known under his pen name “O. Henry.” He was born September 11, 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he spent his childhood. His only formal education was received at the school of his Aunt Lina, where he developed a lifelong love of books. In 1879, at the age of 17, he took a position as a pharmacy clerk at his uncle’s pharmacy W.C. Porter & company on South Elm Street in Greensboro. He became a licensed pharmacist. While at the pharmacy he entertained the local townspeople with his sketches and cartoons of them coming and going at the drugstore. He also gained a reputation for being somewhat of a prankster. Once he noticed a keg of whiskey (used for medicinal purposes only) in the drugstore basement seemed to be disappearing. He discovered two long straws hidden near the barrel and found a small hole bored at the top of the barrel. He suspected a coworker and set about proving his suspicions and decided to have a little fun while doing so. He put ground red pepper in the straws and sent the coworker on an errand in the basement. Porter waited – all of a sudden he heard screams and the coworker came running up the stairs and down the street to a water pump. Porter followed him where the coworker admitted he had been drinking the whiskey and vowed never to do it again.
At the age of twenty, Porter came to Texas primarily for health reasons, and worked on a sheep ranch and lived with the family of Richard M. Hall, whose family had close ties with the Porter family back in North Carolina. It was here that Porter gained a knowledge for ranch life that he later described in many of his short stories.
In 1884, Porter moved to Austin. For the next three years, where he roomed in the home of the Joseph Harrell family and held several jobs. It was during this time that Porter first used his pen name, O. Henry, said to be derived from his frequent calling of “Oh, ‘Henry’” the family cat.
By 1887, Porter began working as a draftsman in the General Land Office, then headed by his old family friend, Richard Hall. In 1891 at the end of Hall’s term at the Land Office, Porter resigned and became a teller with the First National Bank in Austin. After a few years, however, he left the bank and founded the Rolling Stone, an unsuccessful humor weekly. Starting in 1895 he wrote a column for the Houston Daily Post.
Meanwhile, Porter was accused of embezzling funds dating back to his employment at the First National Bank. Leaving his wife and young daughter in Austin, Porter fled to New Orleans, then to Honduras, but soon returned due to his wife’s deteriorating health. She died soon afterward, and in early 1898 Porter was found guilty of the banking charges and sentenced to five years in 1898 at an Ohio prison.
From this low point in Porter’s life, he began a remarkable comeback. Three years and about a dozen short stories later, he emerged from prison as “O. Henry” to help shield his true identity. He moved to New York City, where over the next ten years before his death in 1910, he published over 300 stories and gained worldwide acclaim as America’s favorite short story writer.
O. Henry wrote with realistic detail based on his first hand experiences both in Texas and in New York City. In 1907, he published many of his Texas stories in The Heart of the West a volume that includes “The Reformation of Calliope,” “The Caballero’s Way,” and “The Hiding of Black Bill.” Another highly acclaimed Texas writer, J. Frank Dobie, later referred to O. Henry’s “Last of the Troubadours” as “the best range story in American fiction.”
Porter died on June 5, 1910 in New York City at the age of forty seven. Sadly, he was an alcoholic, and he died virtually penniless
THE GIFT OF THE MAGI
O. Henry wrote hundreds of short stories. This is my very favorite. I am sure each of you know this story. Since it is rather long to post, I have only captured here a few excerpts:
…“Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim’s gold watch that had been his father’s and his grandfather’s. The other was Della’s hair. Had the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty’s jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.
…”Will you buy my hair?” asked Della.
“I buy hair,” said Madame. “Take yer hat off and let’s have a sight at the looks of it.”
Down rippled the brown cascade.
“Twenty dollars,” said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand.
“Give it to me quick,” said Della.
…She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation–as all good things should do. It was even worthy of The Watch.
… Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.
…For there lay The Combs–the set of combs, side and back, that Della had worshipped long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jewelled rims–just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have adorned the coveted adornments were gone.
…”Dell,” said he, “let’s put our Christmas presents away and keep ‘em a while. They’re too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs.
…The magi, as you know, were wise men–wonderfully wise men–who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.”
PLEASE READ THIS BEAUTIFUL STORY FOR YOURSELF, OR BETTER YET, GET THE MOVIE, THE GIFT OF THE MAGI. ALSO, YOU MIGHT FIND OTHER STORIES HERE THAT WILL PEAK YOUR INTEREST AS WELL.
http://www.literaturecollection.com/a/o_henry/25/
THIS IS FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH MOVIE OF THE GIFT OF THE MAGI
Sources:
http://www.lsjunction.com/people/ohenry.jpg
Our State, Down Home in North Carolina magazine – Jan 08 – Article by Janet C. Pittard
http://www.lsjunction.com/people/porter.htm
http://www.literaturecollection.com/a/o_henry/25/
http://www.longlocks.com/41ApJ9Vv55L._SL110_.jpg
http://www.ashton-blakey-antiques.com/proimg/fix/watch-chains-58.jpg
![MCj03871910000[1]](http://rosettasister.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/mcj038719100001.jpg?w=176&h=130 "MCj03871910000[1]")
