CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY GIFT OF The Publishers Cornell University Library PS 2649.P5Z78 3 1924 022 025 914 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022025914 G. HENK The last photograph of O. Henry, taken by W. M. Vander- weyde (New York) in 1909 THE O. Henry INDEX CONTAINING SOME LITTLE PICT- URES OF O. HENRY TOGETHER WITH AN ALPHABETICAL GUIDE TO HIS COMPLETE WORKS "A COMPILED BY E. F. SAXTON ISSUED BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY from the country life press in Garden City New York From a Portrait by W. H. Wallace, N. Y. O. HENRY: PLAYING HIS HAND O. Henry (Died June 5, 1910) Five years . ... the -pencil and the yellow pad Are laid away. Our changes run so swift That many newer pinnacles now lift Above the old four million he made glad. But still the heart of his well-loved Bagdad Upon-the-Subway is to him renewed. He knew, beneath her harmless platitude, The gentler secrets that the shopgirl had. They mark the house on Irving Place FOR SALE; Disrupt the Union Square that once he knew, And necklace our Broadway with brighter lights; But where the pencil that can tell his tale? Or hands to write, as his alone, could do, The stories of our Cabarabian Nights? — Christopher Morley (Courtesy of the N. Y. Evening Post) INTRODUCTORY NOTE ABOUT five years ago the project of an O. Henry biography and index was discussed for the first ^ time. The biography was in the hands of Harry Peyton Steger, a friend of Sydney Porter's during the latter's lifetime and an indefatigable worker for the spread of 0. Henry's fame after he died. It was Steger, who visited, in 1912, every haunt of O. Henry in the South and brought to light a quantity of the disjecta membra of O. Henry's early literary efforts. These were later collected in the volume called "Rolling Stones." •J Steger's faith in the ultimate position which O. Henry would occupy in American literature was of the type which moves mountains. A Texan and a Rhodes Scholar, he was^^ temperament, education and a large whimsicality of his own rather subtly attuned to O. Henry's moods and he probably did more than any other individual to lay the first foundations of O. Henry's popularity. IJMost unfortunately Harry Peyton Steger died in January 19 13. The biographical work was taken up by Professor C. Alphonso Smith of the Department of English in the University of Virginia. Dr. Smith, who has been gathering material for a number of years, will have his volume ready in the course of the next year; his work will be the authoritative record of Sydney Porter's life with a valuable critical study of his writings. •I This little booklet makes no pretense to give more than a glimpse of O. Henry and a convenient guide to his books. The sketches by Mr. Arthur Page and Richard Duffy are reprinted through the courtesy of the authors and editors of The Bookman, in which they originally appeared with the illustrations. The Index is not for sale; it may be had by any one who requests it. For such as it is the compiler offers it as a tribute in friendship to H. P. S., who would have liked to see it done. E. F. S. LITTLE PICTURES OF O. HENRY By ARTHUR W. PAGE I — Born and "Raised" in No'th Ca'lina " The hero of the story will be a man horn and 'raised' in a somnolent little Southern town. His education is about u common school, hut he learns afterward from reading and life. I'm going to try to give him a style in narrative and speech — the best I've got in the shop." These words are 0. Henry's own. I In Greensboro, North Carolina, at the time of Will Porter's youth there were four classes of people: decent white folks, mean white folks, decent "niggers" and mean "niggers." Will Porter and his people belonged to the first class. During the time that he was growing up there were about twenty-five hundred people in Greens- boro. It was a simple democratic little place with rather more intellectual ambitions than most places of its size, but without the hum of modern industry which the cotton mills have latterly brought to it or the great swarm of eager students that now flock to the State Normal School. In this quiet and pleasant community William Sydney Porter grew up. Algernon Sidney Porter, his father, was a doctor of skill and distinction, who in late life practised his profession little; but worked upon many inventions. His mother is said to have written poetry and her father was at one time editor of the Greens- boro Patriot. A President, a planter, a banker, a blacksmith, a short-story writer or a sailor might any of them have such for- bears as these. If any dependence can be laid upon early "influences" that affect an author's work, in O. Henry's case we must certainly consider Aunt "Una'' Porter. She attended to his bringing up at home and he attended her instruction at school. His mother died when Will Porter was very young, and his aunt, Miss Evelina Porter, 5 ran the Porter household as well as the school next door, and a most remarkable school it was. Porter's desk-mate in that school, Tom Tate, not long ago wrote the following account, for his niece to read: "Miss Porter was a maiden lady and conducted a private school of West Market Street, in Greensboro, adjoining the Porter resi- dence. Will was educated there, and this was his whole school education (with the exception of a term or two at graded school). There was a great deal more learned in this little one-story, one- roomed school-house than the three R's. It was the custom of ' Miss Lina,' as every one called her, during the recess hour to read aloud to those of her scholars who cared to hear her, and there was always a little group around her chair listening. She selected good books, and a great many of her old scholars showed the impress of these little readings in after life. On Friday night there was a gathering of the scholars at her home, and those were good times, too. They ate roasted chestnuts, popped corn or barbecued quail and rabbits before the big open wood fire in her room. There was always a book to read or a story to be told. Then there was a game of story-telling, one of the gathering would start the story and each one of the others was called on in turn to add his quota until the end. Miss Lina's and Will's were always interesting. In the summer time there were picnics and fishing expeditions; in the autumn chinquapin and hickory gatherings; and in the spring wild-flower hunts, all personally conducted by Miss Lina. "During these days Will showed decided artistic talent, and it was predicted that he would follow in the footsteps of his kinsman, Tom Worth, the cartoonist, but the literary instinct was there, too, and the quaint dry humor and the keen insight into the peculiar- ities of human nature. "The boys of the school were divided in two clubs, the Brickbats and the Union Jacks. The members of the Union Jacks were Percy Gray, Will Porter, Jim Doak and Tom Tate, three of whom died before Teaching middle age. Tom Tate is the sole survivor of this little party of four. "This club had headquarters in an outbuilding on the grounds of the old Edgeworth Female College, which some years previously had been destroyed by fire. In this house they kept their arms and accoutrements, consisting of wooden battle-axes, shields, and 6 old cavalry sabres, and on Friday nights it was their custom to sally forth armed and equipped in search of adventure, like knights of old from their castle, carefully avoiding the dark nooks where the moonlight did not fall. Will was the leading spirit in these daring pursuits, and many was the hair-raising adventure these ten-year- old heroes encountered, and the shields and battle-axes were oft- times thrown aside so as not to impede the free action of the nether limbs when safety lay only in flight. Ghosts were of common oc- currence in those days, or rather nights, and arms were useless to cope with the supernatural; it took good sturdy legs. "After the short school-days Porter found employment as pre- scription clerk in the drugstore of his uncle, Clarke Porter, and it was there that his genius as an artist and writer budded forth and gave the first promise of the work of after years. The old Porter drugstore was the social club of the town in those days. A game of chess went on in the back room always, and around the old stove behind the prescription counter the judge, the colonel, the doctor and other local celebrities gathered and discussed affairs of state, the fate of nations and other things and incidentally helped them- selves to liberal portions of Clarke's Vini Gallaci or smoked his cigars without money and without price. There were some rare characters who gathered around that old stove, some queer per- sonalities, and Porter caught them and transferred them to paper by both pen and pencil in an illustrated comedy satire that was his first public literary and artistic effort. "When this was read and shown around the stove the picture was so true to life and caught the peculiarities of the dramatis personae so aptly it was some time before the young playwright was on speaking terms with some of his old friends. 'Alias Jimmy Valentine's' hit is history now, but I doubt if at any time there was a more genuine tribute to Porter's ability than from the audience around the old stove, behind the prescription counter nearly thirty years ago. " In those days Sunday was a day of rest, and Porter with a friend would spend the long afternoons out on some sunny hillside shel- tered from the wind by the thick brown broom sedge, lying on their backs gazing up into the blue sky dreaming, planning, talking or turning to their books, reading. He was an ardent lover of God's great out-of-doors, a dreamer, a thinker and a constant reader. He was such a man — true-hearted and steadfast to those he cared for, as gentle and sensitive as a woman, retiring to a fault, pure, clean and honorable." In these characteristics Will Porter followed in his father's foot- steps. It was a saying in Greensboro that if there were cushioned seats in Heaven old Dr. Porter would have one, because of his charity and goodness to the poor. And there was an active sym- pathy between the old man and his son. The old gentleman on cold stormy nights when his boy was late getting home from the drugstore always had a roaring wood fire for him, and a pot of cof- fee and potatoes and eggs warming in the fire for his midnight supper. His pencil was busy most of the time, if not with writing, with drawing. He was a famous cartoonist. There are several versions of the story about him and an important customer at his uncle's store. Young Porter did not remember the customer's name, but when the man asked him to charge some articles he did not wish to admit his ignorance. So he put down the items and drew a pic- ture of the customer. His uncle had no difficulty in recognizing the likeness. In 1 88 1 Dr. and Mrs. J. K. Hall went to Texas to visit their sons, Richard and Lee Hall, of Texas-ranger fame, and Will Porter was sent with them, because it was thought that the close confinement in the drugstore was undermining his health. He never again lived in Greensboro, but Greensboro was never altogether out of his mind. Many years later, when he was living in New York, he wrote this account of himself — an account which gives an inkling of the whimsical charm of the man and his fondness for the old life in the old land of his birth. "I was born and raised in 'No'th Ca'lina' and at eighteen went to Texas and ran wild on the prairies. Wild yet, but not so wild. Can't get to loving New Yorkers. Live all alone in a great big two rooms on quiet old Irving Place three doors from Wash, lrving's old home. Kind of lonesome. Was thinking lately (since the April moon commenced to shine) how I'd like to be down South, where I could happen over to Miss Ethel's or Miss Sallie's and sit on the porch — not on a chair — on the edge of the porch, and lay my straw hat on the steps and lay my head back against the honeysuckle on the post — and just talk. And Miss Ethel would go in directly 8 (they say presently up here) and bring out the guitar. She would complain that the E string was broken, but no one would believe her- and pretty soon all of us would be singing the 'Swanee River' and 'In the Evening by the Moonlight' and — oh, gol darn it, what's the use of wishing." Part II — Texan Days Wili/ Porter found a new kind of life in Texas — a life that filled his mind with that rich variety of types and adventures which later was translated into his stories. Here he got — from observation, and not from experience, as has often been said, for he was never a cowboy — the originals of his Western characters and Western scenes. He looked on at the more picturesque life about him rather than shared in it; though through his warm sympathy and his vivid imagination he entered into its spirit as completely as any one who had fully lived its varied parts. It was while he was living on the Hall ranch, to which he had gone in search of health, that he wrote — and at once destroyed — his first stories of Western life. And it was there, too, that he drew the now famous series of illustrations for a book that never was printed. The author of that book, "Uncle Joe" Dixon, was a pros- pector in the bonanza mining days in Colorado. Now he is a newspaper editor in Florida; and he has lately told, for the survivors of Will Porter's friends of that period, the story of the origin of these drawings. His narrative illustrates anew the remarkable impression that Will Porter's quaint and whimsical personality even in his boyhood, made upon those who knew him. Other friends, who knew him more intimately than "Uncle Joe" Dixon, saw other sides of Will Porter's character. With them his boyish love of fun and of good-natured and sometimes daredevil mischief came again to the surface, as well as those refinements of feeling and manner that were his heritage as one of the "decent white folks" of Greensboro. And with them, too, came out the ironical fate that pursued him most of his life — to be a dreamer and yet to be harnessed to tasks that brought his head from the clouds to the commonplaces of the store and the street. Perhaps it was this very bending of a sky-seeking imagination to the dusty comedy of every day that brought him later to see life as he pictured it in "The Four Million," with its mingling of Caliph Haroun-al-Ras- chid's romance with the adventures of shop-girls and restaurant keepers. At any rate, even the Texas of the drug-clerk days and of the bank-clerk period appealed to his sense of the humorous and romantic and grotesque. Here is what one intimate of those days recalls of his character and exploits: "Will Porter, shortly after coming to Texas became a member of the Hill City Quartette, of Austin, composed of C. E. Hillyer, R. H. Edmundson, Howard Long and himself. Porter was the littlest man in the crowd, and, of course, basso profundo. He was about five feet six inches tall, weighed about one hundred and thirty pounds, had coal black hair, gray eyes, and a long, carefully twisted moustache; looked as though he might be a combination between the French and the Spanish, and 1, think he once told me that the blood of the Huguenot flowed in his veins. He was one of the most ac- complished gentlemen I ever knew. His voice was soft and mu- sical, with just enough rattle in it to rid it of all touch of effemin- acy. He had a keen sense of humor, and there were two dis- tinct methods of address which was characteristic with him — his business address and his friendly address. As a business man, his face was calm, almost expressionless; his demeanor was steady, even calculated. He always worked for a high class of employers, was never wanting for a position, and was prompt, accurate, talented and very efficient; but the minute he was out of business — that was all gone. He always approached a friend with a merry twinkle in his eye and an expression which said: 'Come on, boys, we are going to have a lot of fun,' and we usually did. " If W. S. P. at this time had any ambitions as a writer, he never mentioned it to me. I do not recall that he was fond of reading. One day I quoted some lines to him from a poem by John Alex- ander Smith. He made inquiry about the author, borrowed the book and committed to memory a great many passages from it, but I do not recall ever having known him to read any other book. I asked him one day why he never read fiction. His reply was: 'That it was all tame compared with the romance in his own life,' — which was really true. "In the great railroad strike at Fort Worth, Texas, the Gover- nor called out the State Militia, and the company to which we be- longed was sent, but as we were permitted a choice in the matter. Porter and I chose not to go. In a little while a girl he was in love with went to Waco on a visit. Porter moped around disconsolate 10 r" 'sH ^F 1 *■■— ''>p%9 1 $£■ i O HENRY AT THE AGE OF 6 O. HENRY'S FATHER THE BOLLIfTO STONE PAGE FROM THE P1UNKVILLE PATRiOT. VOL. XYXI- PLTJNKYILLE TEX APRIL 02TJ 1895 N0KI-. THe pLunkViUe PaTriOL, a a Published ranrKov^T Friday, or COL. A RJSTOil.E JORDAN, Wiicr* ■avoiii Office after Feb. in ; Biek of Crimes' ilaughiei pen, two doon nor iti of Caney Cicti. , R. R. timetable. N. bound irr. Flan^ville m j AM VIGTOKT!! Spring hit o BOD Tailor and Sue Billings jriep at n a. M yesiordaX. The affiar took place iu M. t cha- rch S by |. W. The building wu decorated wilh evergreens and over tbt pulpit m an Imaease ocll made of ol hysainihs g d old bud' bates. The groomwii backsdapby Fete fcbfefferBiilWIlllams atrial cyt 6 ruin IroJ PikeviHe they called cot y Mn pendergralt played a dead march en the orgun at ibe gaol did is cake walk up the fle" i|it« ipoii, a]ii tnina a go ptq an's boa pleats and wsa the sinecure olall eyes. Bo't had od his ttigal 3 and bla qrotberjams , Prince albert Th» happy couple had a Iced it man Billingce, and iben flagged the 7:15 height for a Ibree day* bridle trip Bob It rather triHinl ,and the cbanc- eme trui old Billiogi »ill gain* ion d Head of loaing a dauigher. Va* Po'iiicom I PATRONIZE THE ELITE SALOOH Cold pesr agwap on up . Back door opened on 3 up* Sand- PExKTNS HOG-PEN S&USAHED ay a xaqeas corpus & ■■ pcikma Make) A Bold rciisttniel I The HOG ukei a Hand 10 the procc ding. 1900 People on the Cronnd. Prou mm ■» ra u> n.r.rri.u Plonk vrtie, Adril »7fh— Wednesday began abonl daylight, and people OD horsebace and alt kind* lo vehicles began lo come in town. The day had been advertised as t-g one when we, , U May onhould lorcihuy remove the disgusting hog pen of Jadge Per- "m ibal fronts along oar prjoeQU in decidedlj bad odor, about 14 ban- dt high. — gftudae Perklni aaf 00 Ibc epge the pen barefoooed ; with a joag. tin- barreled ihot gun in hii band. ■ai breathing hard, and hit Ml toe* were working viclonsiy. walked up in from of the Jadge ibere wat an interne alienee. We ;.o the Revised Suinesona pcannl stand, ibilled sno aic round. 1 vpt *o eye on the Jad'ge* gan. Jadge Krklni." we eaid in a land x, '"by the authority invested in 0) by Ibc Commonwealth of Plonk- *ite and the rower oj the Pren, :ommaDp you 10 remove, takeaway. itriqustutafe and dliperso ,youriel and aloreaaid hog contrary P l. Texas until death yoodo part, then urnek np Laney creek in a notb wcileily d iieciioo. were escorted ai once 10 that Elete bj ■ crowd ol cheering ciliiens who bad witnessed fthe downfall 0! Tespotism in Plnnk- vi|le. Pete Doflingei made a speech ■ |lou Covenor m 1B96, but ihii wc consider a little prema- ■ wilt be oat again in IH HEHOHIABC. telegram jost before* going to picaa, announcing the death mother In Branehtown, Ga- ud dignity of iheSute olShe wa* the beet woman in the worM, help rod (he only being who hal loved and aken any interest in ui. Sbe wat itrf poor, and we have for ten year* tent her oil our slender income beyond rar actual need*. We kno when a little Gie dog from the couur- tnd not a geniu*, baring had to work ueinV the bogs' tail protindiaS thr- oath the pen, bit ofi about The hog gave a squeal uud since were ten year* of age, "but have made a bit blnfl and have al> way* (ucceedrd In keeping her In eo start[ed the J ndge that he palled :omfart, and, thank God, the alway* We netted over 1 privileges lor 1 1 I by selling Alter a light bieahlan ol a bottle o> pfece of lemon pi ' swung Indian clvbs lot 10 minutes ind careful- ly read ouer ibc Marquis of quceui. btny's rules. At fira minute lo 8 wo sallied 41b 1 our minion carrying a copy 1 Revised Statute*, • pair of biaaskna- is, an aic and about 7 coca,ia3t . When we got to Belle llcade Aven- ; achcttwenSapfrom at (cast 1900 nple. All tho atom mm cJ endoiing a large, MnerelUoM bog, the trigger and hii gnn^iKhaigrd loki< ing oHhtilelt great toe and killing acbi naman and a poodle, bcloninglnX t< Mr>; 30 1. Daggett. We sprang for- ward with oar ne and qvjckly abed ibe bonds ol the pen. The hot J' Wool" In deep baritone voice, shot irboogh the bole. AD eye witness tells 01 that Judge binking bet bol Perklni was standing on one loot ib. reaiasen. 00110 snub as in the bock' bead w|th hit gan barrel when Mr* Cot. Doggd ttrssk lh| Jadge just as be itrntk ine tipewalk, while ihe waa tabalag him with her ■clicved ia tit. Our friends will par- Jon as lot dragging in onr peraonal ■flairs, bol we feel lonely, and we iave vefy little lo encourage ui now he world. She always kept each copy of this opening and remaskini »or little paper, and read it as If i of the brighten * and laid them away reverently! of the world's Widows ! Iaeod your name, bight, weight, reatb O. HENRY HIMSELF ALWAYS WENT OVER THE TYPE OF THIS PAGE (A FEATURE OF THE ROLLING STONE) AND CAREFULLY MADE THE RIGHT KIND OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. for a few days, and suddenly said to me: 'I believe I'll take a visit at the Government's expense.' With him to think was to act. A telegram was sent to Fort Worth: 'Capt. Blank, Fort Worth, Texas. Squad of volunteers Company Blank, under my command tender you their services if needed. Reply.' 'Come next train,' Cap- tain Blank commanded. Upon reaching the depot no orders for transportation of squad had been received. Porter actually held up the train until he could telegraph and get transportation for his little squad, because the girl had been notified that he would be in Waco on a certain train. She afterward said that when the train pulled into Waco he was sitting on the engine pilot with a gun across his lap and a distant glance at her was all that he got, but he had had his adventure and was fully repaid. "This adventure, is only one of thousands of such incidents that commonly occurred in his life. He lived in an atmosphere of ad- venture that was the product of his own imagination. He was an inveterate story-teller, seemingly purely from the pleasure of it, but he never told a vulgar joke, and as much as he loved humor he would not sacrifice decency for its sake and his stories about women were always refined. "He told a great many stories in the first person. We were often puzzled to know whether they were real or imaginary, and when we made inquiry his stock reply was: 'Never question the validity of a joke.' " But the lure of the pen was getting too strong for Will Porter to resist. Life as a teller in the First National Bank of Austin was too routine not to be relieved by some outlet for his love of fun and for his creative literary instinct. An opportunity opened to buy a printing outfit, and he seized it and used it for a year to issue the Rolling Stone, a weekly paper that suggested even then his later method as a humorist and as a photographic portrayer of odd types of humanity. Dr. D. Daniels — " Dixie" he was to Will Porter — now a dentist in Galveston, Texas, was his partner in this enter- prise, and his story of that year of fun gives also a picture of Will Porter's habit of studying human nature at first hand — a habit that later carried him into many quaint byways of New York and into many even more quaint and revealing byways of the human heart. Here is Dr. Daniels's story: " It was in the spring of 1894 that I floated into Austin," said Dan- 13 iels, "and I got a place in the State printing office. I had been working there for a short time when I heard that a man named Porter had bought out the old Iconoclast plant — known everywhere as Brann's Iconoclast — and was looking for a printer to go into the game with him. I went around to see him, and that was the first time I met O. Henry. Porter had been a clerk in the Texas Land Office and a teller in the First National Bank in Austin, and when W. C. Brann went to Waco decided to buy out his plant and run a weekly hu- morous paper. " I talked things over with him, the proposition looked good, and we formed a partnership then and there. We christened the paper the Rolling Stone after a few discussions, and in smaller type across the full-page head we printed 'Out for the moss.' Which is exactly what we were out for. Our idea was to run this weekly with a lot of current events treated in humorous fashion, and also to run short sketches, drawings and verse. I had been doing a lot of chalk-plate work and the specimens I showed seemed to make a hit with Porter. Those chalk-plates were the way practically all of our cuts were printed. "Porter was one of the most versatile men I had ever met. He was a fine singer, could write remarkably clever stuff under all circumstances and was a good hand at sketching. And he was the best mimic I ever saw in my life. He was one of the genuine democrats that you hear about more often than you meet. Night after night, after we would shut up shop, he would call to me to come along and 'go bumming.' That was his favorite expression for the night-time prowling in which we indulged. We would wander through streets and alleys, meeting with some of the worst specimens of down-and-outers it has ever been my privilege to see at close range. I've seen the most ragged specimen of a bum hold up Porter, who would always do anything he could for the man. His one great failing was his inability to say 'No' to a man. "He never cared for the so-called 'higher classes' but watched the people on the streets and in the shops and cafes, getting his ideas from them night after night. 1 think that it was in this way he was able to picture the average man with such marvellous fidelity. "Well, as I started to say, we moved into the old Iconoclast plant, got out a few issues, and moved into the Brueggerhoff build- ing. The Rolling Stone met with unusual success at the start, and >4 we had in our files letters from men like Bill Nye and John Kendrick Bangs praising us for the quality of the sheet. We were doing nicely, getting the paper out every Saturday — approximately — and^blowing the gross receipts every night. Then we began to strike snags! One of our features was a series of cuts with humorous" underlines of verse. One of the cuts was the rear view of a fat German professor leading an orchestra, beating the air wildly with his baton. Underneath the cut Porter had written the following verse: With his baton the professor beats the bars, Tis also said beats them when he treats. But it made that German gentleman see stars When the bouncer got the cue to bar the beats. "For some reason or other that issue alienated every German in Austin from the Rolling Stone, and cost us more than we were able to figure out in subscriptions and advertisements. "We got out one feature of the paper that used to meet with pretty general approval. It was a page gotten up in imitation of a back- woods country paper, and we christened it 'The Plunkville Patriot.' That idea has been carried out since then in a dozen different forms, like 'The Hogwallow Kentuckian,' and 'The Bingville Bugle,' to give two of the prominent examples. Porter and 1 used to work on this part of the paper nights and Sundays. I would set the type for it, as there was a system to all of the typographical errors that we made, and I couldn't trust any one else to set it up as we wanted it. "The paper ran along for something over a year, and then was discontinued. Following the political trouble and the other trou- bles in which Porter became involved, he left the State. Some time was spent in Houston; the next stop was New Orleans; then he jumped to South America, and only returned to Texas for a short period before leaving the State forever. His experiences on a West Texas ranch, in Texas cities and in South America, however, gave him a thorough insight into the average run of people whom he pictured so vividly in his later work. He was a greater man than any of us knew when we were with him in the old days." Ill — The New York Days — Richard Duffy's Narrative His coming to New York, with the resolution "to write for bread," as he said once in a mood of acrid humor, was dramatic, as is a whisper compared to a subdued tumult of voices. I be- •5 lieve I am correct in saying that outside his immediate family few were aware that O. Henry was entering this "nine-day town" ex- cept Gilman Hall, my associate on Ainslee's Magazine, the pub- lishers, Messrs. Street and Smith, and myself. For some time we had been buying stories from him, written in his perfect Spen- cerian copperplate hand that was to become familiar to so many editors. Only then he wrote always with a pen on white paper, whereas once he was established in New York he used a lead pencil sharpened to a needle's point on one of the yellow pads that were always to be seen on his table. The stories he published at this period were laid either in the Southwest or in Central America, and those of the latter countries form the bulk of his first issued volume, "Cabbages and Kings." It was because we were sure of him as a writer that our publishers willingly advanced the cheque that brought him to New York and assured him a short breathing spell to look round and settle. Also, it was because O. Henry wanted to come. You could always make him do anything he wanted to do, as he had a way of saying, if you were coaxing him into an in- vitation he had no intention of pursuing into effect. It was getting late on a fine spring afternoon down at Duane and William Streets when he came to meet us. From the outer gate the boy presented a card bearing the name William Sydney Por- ter. I don't remember just when we found out that "O. Henry" was merely a pen-name; but think it was during the correspondence arranging that he come to New York. I do remember, however, that when we were preparing our yearly prospectus, we had written to him, asking that he tell us what the initial O. stood for, as we wished to use his photograph and preferred to have his name in full. It was the custom and would make his name stick faster in the minds of readers. With a courteous flourish of appreciation at the honor we were offering him in making him known to the world, he sent us "Olivier," and so he appeared as Olivier Henry in the first publishers' announcement in which his stories were her- alded. Later he confided to us, smiling, what a lot of fun he had had in picking out a first name of sufficient advertising effectiveness that began with O. As happens in these matters, whatever mind picture Gilman Hall or I had formed of him from his letters, his handwriting, his stories, vanished before the impression of the actual man. He wore a 16 dark suit of clothes, I recall, and a four-in-hand tie of bright color. He carried a black derby, high-crowned, and walked with a springy, noiseless step. To meet him for the first time you felt his most notable quality to be reticence, not a reticence of social timidity, but a reticence of deliberateness. If you also were observing, you would soon understand that his reticence proceeded from the fact that civilly yet masterfully he was taking in every item of the "you" being presented to him to the accompaniment of convention's phrases and ideas, together with the "you" behind this presentation. It was because he was able thus to assemble and sift all the multi- farious elements of a personality with sleight-of-hand swiftness that you find him characterizing a person or a neighborhood in a sentence or two; and once I heard him characterize a list of editors he knew each in a phrase. On his first afternoon in New York we took him on our usual walk uptown from Duane Street to about Madison Square. That was a long walk for O. Henry, as any who knew him may witness. An- other long one was when he walked about a mile over a fairly high hill with me on zigzag path through autumn woods. I showed him plains below us and hills stretching away so far and blue they look like the illimitable sea from the deck of an ocean liner. But it was not until we approached the station from which we were to take the train back to New York that he showed the least sign of animation. "What's the matter, Bill," I asked, "I thought you'd like to see some real country." His answer was: " Kunn'l, how kin you expeck me to appreciate the glories of nature when you walk me over a mounting like that an' I got new shoes on?" Then he stood on one foot and on the other, caressing each aching member for a second or two, and smiled with bashful knowingness so like him. It was one of his whimsical amusements, I must say here, to speak in a kind of country style of English, as though the English language were an instrument he handled with hesitant unfamiliarity. Thus it happened that a woman who had written to him about his stories and asked if her "lady friend" and she might meet him, informed him afterward: "You mortified me nearly to death, you talked so un- grammatical!" We never knew just where he stopped the first night in New York, beyond his statement that it was at a hotel not far from the ferry in a neighborhood of so much noise that he had not been able to 17 sleep. I suppose we were voluminous with suggestions as to where he might care to live, because we felt we had some knowledge of the subject of board and lodging, and because he was the kind of man you'd give your best hat to on short acquaintance, if he needed a hat, — but also he was the kind of man who would get a hat for himself. Within about twenty-four hours he called at the office again to say that he had taken a large room in a French table d'h6te hotel in Twenty-fourth Street, between Broadway and Sixth Avenue. Moreover, he brought us a story. In those days he was very prolific. He wrote not only stories, but occasional skits and light verse. In a single number of Ainslee's, as I remember, we had three short stories of his, one of which was signed "O. Henry" and the other two with pseudonyms. Of the latter, "While the Auto Waits" was picked out by several newspapers outside New York as an unusually clever short story. But as O. Henry natur- ally he appeared most frequently, as frequently as monthly publi- cation allows, for to my best recollection, of the many stories we saw of his there were only three about which we said to him, we would rather have another instead. Still he lived in West Twenty-fourth Street, although the place had no particular fascination for him. We used to see him every other day or so, at luncheon, at dinner, or in the evening. Va- rious magazine editors began to look up O. Henry, which was a job somewhat akin to tracing a lost person. While his work was coming under general notice rapidly, he made no effort to push himself into general acquaintance; and all who knew him when he was actually somewhat of a celebrity should be able to say that it was about as easy to induce him to "go anywhere" to meet some- body as it is to have a child take medicine. He was persuaded once to be the guest of a member of the Periodical Publishers' As- sociation on a sail up the Hudson; but when the boat made a stop at Poughkeepsie, O. Henry slipped ashore and took the first train back to New York. Yet he was not unsociable, but a man that liked a few friends round him and who dreaded and avoided a so- called "party" as he did a crowd in the subway. It was at his Twenty-fourth Street room that Robert H. Davis, then of the staff of the New York Worli, ran him to cover, as it were, and concluded a contract with him to furnish one story a week for a year at a fixed salary. It was a gigantic task to face, 18 and I have heard of no other writer who put the same quality of effort and material in his work able to produce one story every seven days for fifty-two successive weeks. The contract was re- newed, 1 believe, and all during this time O. Henry was selling stories to magazines as well. His total of stories amount to two hundred and fifty-one, and when it is considered that they were written in about eight years, one may give him a good mark for industry, especially as he made no professional vaunt about "loving his work." Once when dispirited he said that almost any other way of earning a living was less of a toil than writing. The mood is common to writers, but not so common as to happen to a man who practically had editors or agents of editors sitting on his door- step requesting copy. When he undertook his contract with the IVorld he moved to have more room and more comfortable surroundings for the new job. But he did not move far, no farther than across Madison Square, in East Twenty-fourth Street, to a house near Fourth Avenue. Across the street stands the Metropolitan Building, al- though it was not so vast then. He had a bedroom and sitting- room at the rear of the parlor floor with a window that looked out on a typical New York yard, boasting one ailanthus tree frowned upon by time-stained extension walls of other houses. More and more men began to seek him out, and he was glad to see them, for a good deal of loneliness enters into the life of a man that writes fiction during the better part of the day, and when his work is over feels he must move about somewhere to gather new material. Here it was that he received a visit one day from a stranger, who an- nounced that he was a business man, but had decided to change his line. He meant to write stories, and having read several of O. Henry's, he was convinced that kind of story would be the best paying proposition. O. Henry liked the man off-hand, but he could not help being amused at his attitude toward a "literary career." I asked what advice he gave the visitor, and he answered: "1 told him to go ahead!" The sequel no doubt O. Henry thoroughly enjoyed, for within a few years the stranger had become a best- seller, and continues such. O. Henry remained only for a few months'in these lodgings, having among a dozen reasons for moving the fact that he had more money. I follow his movings with his trunks, his bags, his books, a few, '9 but books he read, and his pictures, likewise a few, that were orig- inal drawings presented to him, or some familiar printed picture that had caught his fancy, because in his movings you trace his life in New York. His next abiding-place was at 55 Irving Place, as he has said in a letter, "a few doors from old Wash. Irving's house." Here he had almost the entire parlor floor with a window large as a store front, opening only at the sides in long panels. At either one of these panels he would sit for hours watching the world go by along the street, not gazing idly, but noting men and women with penetrating eyes, making guesses at what they did for a living, and what fun they got out of it when they had earned it. He was a man you could sit with a long while and feel no nec- essity for talking; but ever so often a passerby would evoke a remark from him that converted an iota of humanity into the embryo of a story. Although he spoke hardly ever to any one in the house except the people who managed it, he had the lodgers all ticketed in his mind. He was friendly but distant with persons of the neigh- borhood he was bound to meet regularly, because he lived so long there, and 1 have often thought he must have persisted as a mys- terious man to them simply because he was so far from being communicative. From Irving Place he went back across the Square to live in a house next to the rectory of Trinity Chapel in West Twenty-fifth Street. But now he moved because the land lady and several lodgers were moving to the same house. From here his next change was to the Caledonia, in West Twenty-sixth Street, whence, as everybody knows, he made his last move to the Polyclinic Hos- pital, where he died. 20 BIBLIOGRAPHY O. HENRY, 1867-1910 Critical estimates, personal sketches and portraits compiled by Katharine Hinton Wootten and Tommie Dora Barker of the staff of Carnegie Library, Atlanta, Georgia * "American Story Teller"— Craftsman, 18:576, August, 1910. "A Typically American Short Story Writer" — Current Literature, 49: 88-9, July, 1910. Cooper, Frederic Taber — "O. Henry" (in "Some American Story Tellers," p. 225-244, Holt, 1911. Gives short bibliography). Irwin, Will — "O. Henry, Man and Writer." Cosmopolitan, 49:447-9, September, 1910. Followed by "The Dream," O. Henry's last story, and "The Crucible," O. Henry's last poem. Lindsay, Nicholas Vachell — "A Knight in Disguise," "He could not for- get that he was a Sidney." Current Literature, 53:111, July, 1912 (This appeared also in American Magazine, 74:216, June, 1912). Page, Arthur W. — "Little Pictures of O. Henry." Bookman, 37:381, 498, 508, 607, June-August, 1913 (The best sketch that has appeared. Illus- trated with pictures of O. Henry and members of his family, as well as scenes of his early life. Show also his first artistic effort, and his drawing of "Uncle Remus"). Personal O. Henry — Bookman, 29:345. Richardson, Caroline Francis — "O. Henry and New Orleans." Book- man, 39:281-7, May, 1914 (Profusely illustrated with views from the scenes of the New Orleans stories). Rollins, Hyder E. — "O. Henry." A critical sketch. Sewanee Review, 22:214, April, 1914 (Criticism of this article in N. Y. Times Book Review, May 3, 1914, p. 220). Steger, Harry Peyton — "O. Henry." Biographical sketch, with por- trait. Bookman, 37:2, March, 1913. Life of O. Henry. Bookman, 34:115-8, October, 1911. " '"O.Henry'— Who He Is and How He Works." World's Work, 18:11724-6, June, 1909. "O. Henry, New Facts About the Great Author," and a hitherto unpub- lished story by O. Henry, "The Fog in Santone." Cosmopolitan, 53:655, October, 1912. •The compilers have in preparation an exhaustive bibliography, and will welcome criticism or suggestions. PORTRAITS Review of Reviews — July, 1910:125. American Magazine — September, 1910:603. Bookman— July, 1908:437; August, 1909:579; March, 1905:3; July, 1913:499, 503-4; August, 1913:612. Independent— September 3, 1908:552. Book News Monthly — October, 1911 (frontispiece). Critic— February, 1904:109. DRAMATIZED STORIES "A Retrieved Reformation" (in "The Roads of Destiny"). Dramatized by Paul Armstrong as "Alias Jimmy Valentine"; Produced at Wallack's Theatre, New York, 1910. Produced at Comedy Theatre, London. Estimate of the play in Everybody's, 22:702, May, 1910. Double Dyed Deceiver" (in "The Roads of Destiny"). Dramatized for Norman Hackett as "A Double Deceiver." Played on the road. "World and the-Door" (in "Whirligigs"). Tried out in San Francisco. "The Third Ingredient" (in "Options"). Dramatized by Catherine Robertson; produced by Professional Women's League, 1912; adapted to vaudeville,by Harris & Armstrong. "The Green Door" (in "The Four Million"). Tried out by the Lamb's Club in New York in 1912. THE WORKS OF O. HENRY — BIBLIOGRAPHY Cabbages and Kings. McClure, 1905; Doubleday, Page & Co., 1908. Net, $1.20. Scene laid in South America. Reviewed in Bookman, February, 1905, 20:561; Critic, February, 1905, 46:189; Independent, February, 9, 1905, 58:328; Outlook, January 7, 1905, 79:94. Four Million, The. McClure, 1906; Doubleday, Page & Co., 1908. Net, $1.00. Deals with everyday life in New York. Reviewed in Critic, July, 1906, 49:93; Independent, July, 1906, 61:161; Outlook, May 3, 1906, 83:42; Public Opinion, May 12, 1906, 40:604; Atlantic, January, 1907, 99: 126; North American Review, May, 1908, 187:781-3. Gentle Grafter, The. McClure, 1908; Doubleday, Page & Co., 1908. Net, $1.00. Fourteen stories which exploit Jeff Peters' methods of "unillegal graft." Reviewed in N. Y. Times, Nov. 21, 1908. Gift of the Wise Men, The. Doubleday, Page & Co., 1911. Net, 50 cents. One of the stories in "The Four Million." For Bibliography see "Four Million." Heart of the West. McClure, 1907; Doubleday, Page & Co., 1908. Net, $1.20. Short stories dealing with frontier life — scenes very familiar to the writer. Reviewed in Nation, November 28, 1907, 85:496; Outlook, November 2, 1907, 87:497; North American Review, April, 1908, 187:781-3. Let Me Feel Your Pulse. Doubleday, Page &„Co., 1910. Net, 50 cents. Options. Harper, 1909. Net, $1.50. Sixteen O. Henry stories. Re- viewed in Nation, December 2, 1909, 89:540, Roads of Destiny. Doubleday, Page & Co., 1909. Net, $1.20. Short stories dealing "with the picturesque riff-raff floating through the South and west Mississippi, Texas, Mexico, and South America." Reviewed in A. L. A. Booklist, September, 1909, 6:28; Nation, July 15, 1909, 89:56; New York Times Book Review, May 22, 1909, 14:319. Rolling Stones. Doubleday, Page & Co., 1913. Net, $1.20. Much biographical material — letters, personal sketches. The twelfth and final volume of the series into which the late Harry Peyton Steger collected O. Henry's work.' Reviewed in Independent, January 23, 1913, 74:206; Out- look, January 18, 1913, 103:142. Bookman, July, 1912, 35:455-6. Notice of coming publication with illustrations. Sixes and Sevens. Doubleday, Page & Co., 1911. Net, $1.20. Twenty- five O. Henry stories. Reviewed in Bellman, November 1, 1911, 11:595; Independent, October 19, 1911, 71:874; Nation, November 23, 1911, 93:493. Strictly Business. More Stories of the Four Million. Doubleday, Page & Co., 1910. Net, $1.20. Twenty-three more O. Henry stories. Reviewed in A. L. A. Booklist, June, 1910, 6:411; Catholic World, June, 1910, 91:393; Independent, May 5, 1910, 68:989; Nation, April 7, 1910, 90:348. Trimmed Lamp, The, and Other Stories of the Four Million. McClure, ' 1907, Doubleday, Page & Co. Net, $1.00. New York life and scenes are depicted ranging from shop girl to the commuter. Reviewed in Atlantic, July, 1907, 100:134; Bookman, September, 1907, 26:79; Independent, October 10, 1907, 63:880; Literary Digest, May 11, 1907, 34:766; Nation, July 4, 1907, 85:16; North American Review, April, 1908, 187:781-3; Outlook, August 17, 1907, 86:833; Review of Reviews, June, 1907, 35:766. Voice of the City, The. Further Stories of the Four Million. McClure, 1908; Doubleday, Page & Co., 1908. Net, $1.00. Reviewed in Independent, September 3, 1908, 65:552; Nation, July 2, 1908, 87:12; Outlook, July 4, 1908, 89:532. Whirligigs. Doubleday, Page & Co., 1910. Net, $1.20. Twenty-four stories on the accident of human destiny. Reviewed in A. L. A. Booklist November, 1910, 7:128: Independent, November 3, 1910, 69:987; Literary Digest, November 19, 1910, 41:940; Nation, November 3, 1910, 91:417. NOTE: — All of the above volumes (including "Options") may be obtained in a red limp leather edition, each volume, net, $1.50. Complete set, of 12 volumes, net, $18.00. Published by Doubleday, Page & Co., Garden City, N. Y. O. HENRY AT THIRTY O. HENRY INDEX A Apology, An ,/ See: Rolling Stones Abdication, the Higher See: Heart of the West Apple, The Sphinx Ability, From Each According See: Heart of the West to His Arabia, A Night in New See: Voice of the City, The See: Strictly Business About Town, Man Arabian Night, A Madison See: Four Million, The Square Accolade, the Guardian of the See: Trimmed Lamp, The See: Roads of Destiny Arcadia, Transients in According to His Ability, From See: Voice of the City, The Each See: Voice of the City, The Archer, Mammon and the See: Four Million, The According to Their Lights See: Trimmed Lamp, The Aristocracy Versus Hash See: Rolling Stones Adjustment of Nature, An See: Four Million, The Art and the Bronco Admiral, The See: Roads of Destiny See: Cabbages and Kings Art, Conscience in Adventures of Shamrock Jolnes, See: Gentle Grafter, The The Arts, Masters of See: Sizes and Sevens See: Cabbages and Kings After Twenty Years See: Four Million, The Assessor of Success, The See: Trimmed Lamp, The A La Carte, Cupid See: Heart of the West At Arms with Morpheus See: Sixes and Sevens A La Carte, Springtime See: Four Million, The Atavism of John Tom Little Answers, Queries and See: Rolling Stones Bear, The See: Rolling Stones Anthem, The Cop and the Atwood, Johnny See: Four Million, The See: Note under Cabbages and King? Aphasia, A Ramble in Auto Waits, While the See: Strictly Business See: Voice of the City, The 25 26 O. HENRY INDEX B Bottle, The Lotus and the See: Cabbages and Kings Babes in the Jungle See: Strictly Business Brickdust Row See: Trimmed Lamp, The Badge or Policeman O'Roon, The Brief Debut op Tlldy, The See: Trimmed Lamp, The See: Four Million, The Bagdad, A Bird op Broadway, Innocents op See: Strictly Business See: Gentle Grafter, The Bargainer, A Blackjack Broker, The Romance of a Busy See: Whirligigs See: Four Million, The Best-Seller Bronco, Art and the See: Options See: Roads of Destiny Between Rounds Burglar, Tommy's See: Four Million, The See: Whirligigs Bexar Script, No. 2692 See: Rolling Stones Business, Strictly — Short Stories See: Strictly Business Billy, The Emancipation op See: Roads of Destiny Buried Treasure See: Options Bird of Bagdad, A See: Strictly Business Burney, Transformation of Martin Black Bill, The Hiding op See: Sizes and Sevens See: Options Busy Broker, The Romance Black Eagle, The Passing op of a See: Roads of Destiny See: Four Million, The Blackjack Bargainer, A Buyer from Cactus City, The See: 'Whirligigs See: Trimmed Lamp, The Blend, The Lost By Courier See: Trimmed Lamp, The See: Four Million, The Blind Man's Holiday c See: Whirligigs 1 Caballero's Way, The Bohemia, A Philistine in See: Heart of the West See: Voice of the City, The - Cabbages and Kings Bohemia, Extradited prom The stories in this volume, though See: Voice of the City, The apparently disconnected chapters, fall into four main groups, with the Bo-Peep op the Ranches, exception of one independent tale, "The Lotus and the Bottle." Rut the stories all have a loose in- Madame See: Whirligigs ter-relation owing to the fact that O. HENRY INDEX 27 Coralio in Central America ia their common stage, and that the dramatis persona?, generally speaking, is the same throughout. For the advantage of readers who wish to get the chapters of the va- rious stories in their natural order, the groups are here marked alpha- betically. For instance, all the chap- ters centring about Frank Good- win are grouped with "The Money Maze" as A. Those about Johnny Atwood with "Cupid's Exile Num- ber Two" as B. Those about Keogh and Clancy with "The Phonograph and the Graft" as C. Those about Dicky as D and those about "The Admiral" as £. Contents: The Proem: By the Carpenter, A "Fox-m-the-Moming," A The Lotus and the Bottle Smith. A Caught, A Cupid's Exile Number Two, B The Phonograph and the Graft, C Money Maze, A The Admiral, E The Flag Paramount, E The Shamrock and the Palm, C The Remnants of the Code, A Shoes, B . Ships, B Masters of Arts, C Dicky, D Rouge et Noir, D Two Recalls, A The Vitagraphoscope, A-C Cabby's Seat, From the See: Four Million, The Cactus City, The Buyer prom See: Trimmed Lamp, The Cad, The Caliph and the See: Sixes and Sevens Cafe, A Cosmopolite in a See: Four Million, The Calieh and the Cad, The See: Sixes and Sevens Caliph, Cupid, and the Clock, The See: Four Million, The Calliope, The Reformation of ,