home O. Henry (real name William Sidney Porter) - American writer, recognized master of the short story - was born September 11, 1862
in Greensboro (North Carolina) in the family of a doctor.
At the age of three, he lost his mother, who died of tuberculosis, and was raised by his paternal aunt, who was the owner of a private school. After school (at the age of 16), he began working as a salesman and pharmacist in his uncle's pharmacy. He learned quickly and received his pharmacist's license within a year.
Three years later he left for Texas, as he had serious symptoms of tuberculosis and needed a change of climate. There, the son of Dr. Hall’s acquaintance, Richard Hall, lived on the ranch, helped with work (once or twice a week he brought mail from the town of Conulla, helped with preparing food for the cowboys), but did not work, did not receive a salary and did not pay for food and shelter. Two years later, having recovered and become stronger, he moved to the city of Austin (Texas); tried different professions: worked as an accountant in a real estate company, as a draftsman in the land department, then worked as a cashier and bookkeeper in a bank in the Texas city of Austin. The first literary experiments were by the early 1880s. In April 1894 Porter begins publishing the humorous weekly The Rolling Stone in Austin, filling it almost entirely with his own essays, jokes, poems and drawings. A year later, the magazine closed due to a lack of funds, in December Porter was fired from the bank and brought to court in connection with the shortage (a shady case, the bank kept almost no records, money was sometimes taken from the cash register even without the knowledge of the cashier, out of a $6,000 shortage 5500 were returned by the owners of the bank, they also testified in favor of Porter at the trial, 500 dollars were contributed by the relatives of Rocha’s wife). After being accused of embezzlement, he hid from law enforcement officers in Honduras (South America) for six months. Came back in January 1897 , in order to care for his sick wife (still with the same fatal tuberculosis). In July she passed away. In February 1898 was convicted of embezzlement and sent to prison in Columbus, Ohio ( March 1898 1898-1901 ), where he spent three years and four days (
In prison, Porter worked in the infirmary as a pharmacist (a rare profession in prison) and wrote stories, looking for a pseudonym. In the end, he chose the version of O. Henry (often incorrectly spelled like the Irish surname O'Henry - O'Henry). Its origin is not entirely clear. The writer himself claimed in an interview that the name Henry was taken from the society news column in the newspaper, and the initial O. was chosen as the simplest letter. He told one of the newspapers that O. stands for Olivier (the French name Olivier), and indeed, he published several stories there under the name Olivier Henry. According to other sources, this is the name of the famous French pharmacist Etienne Ocean Henry, whose medical reference book was popular at that time. Another hypothesis was put forward by writer and scientist Guy Davenport: “Oh. Henry" is nothing more than an abbreviation of the name of the prison where the author was imprisoned - Ohio Penitentiary (Ohio State Penitentiary). Also known as the Arena District, which burned to the ground on April 21, 1930.
Al Jennings, who was in prison with Porter and became famous as the author of the book “Through the Dark with O. Henry” (there is an option to translate the title “With O. Henry at the Bottom”), reports in his book that the pseudonym was taken from a famous cowboy song , where there are the following lines: “My beloved returned at 12 o’clock. Tell me, O Henry, what is the sentence?”
There is an opinion that “The famous American writer W. Porter took the pseudonym O. Henry in honor of the physicist J. Henry, whose name was constantly uttered with admiration by the school teacher: “Oh! Henry! It was he who discovered that the discharge of a capacitor through a coil is oscillatory in nature!” His first story under this pseudonym was “Dick the Whistler’s Christmas Gift,” published in 1899 in McClure's Magazine, he wrote in prison.
O. Henry's only novel, Cabbages and Kings, was published in 1904(which is not a novel, but a collection of short stories, ostensibly united by a common setting). It was followed by collections of stories: “The Four Million” (the number of residents of the then New York) (The Four Million, 1906 ), “The Trimmed Lamp”, 1907 ), “Heart of the West” (Heart of the West, 1907 ), “The Voice of the City”, 1908 ), "The Gentle Grafter" 1908 ), "Roads of Destiny" 1909 ), “Favorites” (Options, 1909 ), "Business People" (Strictly Business, 1910 ) and "Whirligigs" 1910 ).
Late in his life, Porter suffered from cirrhosis of the liver and diabetes.
O. Henry died June 5, 1910 in New York at the age of 47. He was buried in Asheville, North Carolina, at Riverside Cemetery.
The collection “Postscripts”, published after the death of O. Henry, included feuilletons, sketches and humorous notes written by him for the newspaper “Post” (Houston, Texas, 1895-1896 ). In total, O. Henry wrote 273 stories, the complete collection of his works is 18 volumes.
Eight years after his death, the O. Henry Prize was established in memory of the writer, which is awarded annually.
Works:
"Kings and Cabbages" (novel)
Collections of stories:
"Four million", 1906
"Burning Lamp" 1907
"Heart of the West" 1907
"Noble rogue" 1908
"Voice of the Big City" 1908
"Roads of Destiny" 1909
"To choose from" 1909
"Rotation" 1910
"Business people", 1910
"Sixes and Sevens" 1910
"Under a lying stone" 1910
“Leftovers” or “A Little Bit of Everything” 1910
O. Henry (English O. Henry, pseudonym, real name William Sydney Porter - English William Sydney Porter; 1862-1910) - American writer, prose writer, author of popular short stories characterized by subtle humor and unexpected endings.
William Sidney Porter was born on September 11, 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina. At the age of three, he lost his mother, who died of tuberculosis. Later he came under the care of his paternal aunt. After school, I studied to become a pharmacist and worked in a pharmacy. Then he worked as a cashier-accountant in a bank in the Texas city of Austin. He was accused of embezzlement and hid from law enforcement for six months in Honduras, then in South America. Upon returning to the United States, he was convicted and sent to prison in Columbus, Ohio, where he spent three years (1898-1901).
It's not about the roads we choose, but what's inside us that makes us choose our roads.
In prison, Porter worked in the infirmary and wrote stories, looking for a pseudonym. In the end, I decided on the version of O. Henry (often incorrectly spelled like the Irish surname O'Henry - O'Henry). Its origin is not entirely clear. The writer himself claimed in an interview that the name Henry was taken from the society news column in the newspaper, and the initial O. was chosen as the simplest letter. He told one of the newspapers that O. stands for Olivier (the French name Olivier), and indeed, he published several stories there under the name Olivier Henry. According to other sources, this is the name of the famous French pharmacist Etienne Ocean Henry, whose medical reference book was popular at that time. Another hypothesis was put forward by writer and scientist Guy Davenport: “Oh. Henry" is nothing more than an abbreviation of the name of the prison where the author was imprisoned - Ohio Penitentiary. He wrote his first story under this pseudonym, “Dick the Whistler's Christmas Gift,” published in 1899 in McClure's Magazine.
O. Henry's first book of stories, Cabbages and Kings, was published in 1904. It was followed by The four million (1906), The trimmed lamp (1907), “Heart of the West” (1907), “The Voice of the City” (1908), “The Gentle Grafter” (1908), “Roads of Destiny” (1909) , Options (1909), Strictly Business (1910) and Whirlliggs (1910). At the end of his life he suffered from cirrhosis of the liver and diabetes. The writer died on June 5, 1910 in New York.
The collection “Postscripts”, published after the death of O. Henry, included feuilletons, sketches and humorous notes written by him for the newspaper “Post” (Houston, Texas, 1895-1896). In total, O. Henry wrote 273 stories, the complete collection of his works is 18 volumes. O. Henry occupies an exceptional place in American literature as a master of the short-story genre. Before his death, O. Henry expressed his intention to move on to a more complex genre - to the novel (“everything I have written so far is just self-indulgence, a test of the pen, compared to what I will write in a year”).
In his work, however, these sentiments did not manifest themselves in any way, and O. Henry remained an organic artist of the “small” genre, the story. It is no coincidence, of course, that during this period the writer first began to be interested in social problems and revealed his negative attitude towards bourgeois society (Jennings “Through the Darkness with O. Henry”).
O. Henry's heroes are diverse: millionaires, cowboys, speculators, clerks, laundresses, bandits, financiers, politicians, writers, artists, artists, workers, engineers, firefighters - they replace each other. A skillful plot designer, O. Henry does not show the psychological side of what is happening; the actions of his characters do not receive deep psychological motivation, which further enhances the surprise of the ending.
O. Henry is not the first original master of the “short story”; he only developed this genre, which in its main features had already emerged in the work of T. B. Aldrich (Thomas Bailey Aldrich, 1836-1907). O. Henry's originality was manifested in the brilliant use of jargon, sharp words and expressions, and in the general colorfulness of the dialogues. Already during the writer’s lifetime, the “short story” in his style began to degenerate into a scheme, and by the 1920s it turned into a purely commercial phenomenon: the “method” of its production was taught in colleges and universities, numerous manuals were published, etc.
September 11, 2012 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the American writer O. Henry.
Prose writer, journalist, master of the short story genre O. Henry, real name William Sydney Porter, was born on September 11, 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina (USA).
William's father was a doctor. At the age of three, the child lost his mother and was raised by his aunt Evelina Porter, who ran a private school for girls, where he received his primary education.
In 1879-1881, William worked in his uncle's pharmacy, but due to health problems he moved to a ranch in Texas. There he met Atholl Estes, who became his wife in 1887.
In 1882, William Porter moved to Austin, where he worked as a pharmacist, bank clerk, and correspondent.
Porter's first literary efforts date back to the early 1880s. In 1894, William Porter began publishing a weekly humor magazine, The Rolling Stone, in Austin, filling it almost entirely with his own essays, poems, and drawings. A year later, the magazine closed, Porter moved with his family to Houston, where he began working as a columnist, reporter, and part-time cartoonist for a local newspaper.
An audit of the bank where William Porter previously worked discovered a deficiency, he was accused of embezzlement and had to stand trial.
Porter's son-in-law posted bail to free him from trial, but in 1896, William escaped from prison and made his way to Honduras via New Orleans.
In February 1897, upon learning of his wife's fatal illness, he returned to Austin, where he was immediately arrested. The trial was adjourned until the death of Atholl Estes (July 25, 1897), after which Porter was sentenced to five years in the Federal Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio (from April 25, 1898).
In prison, William Porter worked in the infirmary and was given a separate room where he had the opportunity to write stories.
During the first two years of his prison term, 14 of his stories appeared in New York magazines, published under various pseudonyms (Oliver Henry, S.H. Peters, James L. Bliss, T.B. Dowd, Howard Clark). The writer also wrote his first story in prison under the pseudonym O. Henry - “Dick Whistler's Christmas Gift,” published in 1899 in McClure’s Magazine.
There are several versions of the origin of the pseudonym O. Henry.
According to one of them, the name Henry was taken from the society news column in the newspaper, and the initial “O” was chosen by the writer “as the simplest letter.” According to another version, the pseudonym was formed on behalf of the French pharmacist Etienne Ocean Henry, whose medical reference book was popular at that time.
In the spring of 1902, O. Henry moved to New York.
At the end of 1903, he signed a contract with the New York edition of the World for the weekly delivery of a short Sunday story - at $100 per story, the writer's annual earnings were equal to the income of popular American novelists.
O. Henry worked at a high pace, at the same time writing stories for other periodicals. Despite this, according to the writer himself, he did not know how to manage money and had a lot of debts.
In 1904, O. Henry's first collection, Cabbages and Kings, was published - a cycle of short stories connected by a common plot. It was followed by collections of short stories: The Four Million (1906), The Trimmed Lamp (1907), Heart of the West (1907), The Voice of the City of the City, 1908), The Gentle Grafter (1908), Roads of Destiny (1909), Options (1909), Strictly Business (1910) and "Whirling" (Whirligigs, 1910).
In 1907, the writer married Sarah Lindsay Coleman and moved with his daughter to his wife in Asheville, North Carolina. However, in 1909 they separated.
The writer strove for privacy, avoided social gatherings, and did not give interviews.
O. Henry spent the last weeks of his life alone in a New York hotel room. He was very ill, drank a lot and could no longer work.
O. Henry is a recognized master of the “short story” genre, he has written more than 300 stories, the complete collection of works is 18 volumes. O. Henry's heroes are millionaires, cowboys, speculators, clerks, laundresses, bandits, financiers, politicians, writers, artists, artists, workers, engineers, firefighters and others. The writer's stories are characterized by subtle humor and unexpected plot denouement.
In 1918, the annual O.Henry Award was established in honor of the writer for the best story, which is awarded to American and Canadian authors. The stories are published in the collection The O.Henry Prize Stories. The winners over the years were Truman Capote, William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, John Updike, Woody Allen, Stephen King and others.
Several films have been made based on O. Henry's stories, including the Soviet film "The Great Comforter" (1933), the American film "The Leader of the Redskins and Others..." (O. Henry's Full House, 1952), as well as a trilogy directed by Leonid Gaidai " Business People" (1963), which included the short films "The Roads We Take", "Kindred Souls", and "The Leader of the Redskins".
William Sidney Porter, known under the creative pseudonym O. Henry, is famous for his stories filled with humor and always an unexpected, bright ending. Despite the writer’s optimism on the pages of the short stories, his life since childhood was difficult and sad.
A century later, among fans of O. Henry's literary talent and modern critics, W. S. Porter is considered the standard of subtle humor and sarcasm. And the story “The Leader of the Redskins” - O. Henry’s calling card - became one of the most popular in the world. However, William Porter did not only write humorous stories - the short story “The Last Leaf” became an example of sentimentality.
William himself did not consider himself a genius; on the contrary, the writer was modest and critical of his works. O. Henry's creative dream was to create a full-fledged novel, but it was not destined to come true.
William Sidney Porter was born to Dr. Algernon Sidney Porter and Mary Jane Virginia Swaim Porter on September 11, 1862. The parents of the future writer got married on April 20, 1958, and 7 years later the mother of the future writer died of tuberculosis.
William was barely 3 years old when widowed Algernon Sidney Porter took him to live with his grandmother. Soon the father, unable to recover from the loss of his wife, began to drink, stopped caring for his son, settled in an outbuilding and devoted his free time to inventing a “perpetual motion machine.”
Left without maternal love and care from early childhood, the boy found solace in books. William read everything: from classics to women's novels. The young man’s favorite works were the Arabic and Persian fairy tales “The Arabian Nights” and the English prose in the baroque style by Robert Burton “The Anatomy of Melancholy” in 3 volumes. Young William’s favorite literary works influenced the writer’s work.
After the death of his mother, his father's sister Evelina Maria Porter took over the upbringing of little William. It was the aunt, who owned her own private elementary school, who instilled in the future writer a love of literature. Having received a secondary education at Lindsay Street School, William did not change family traditions and got a job in a pharmacy that belonged to his uncle. In August 1881, young Porter received his pharmacist's license. While continuing to work at the pharmacy, he demonstrated his natural artistic talents by painting portraits of townspeople.
In March 1882, William, plagued by a debilitating cough, went to Texas, accompanied by physician James C. Hall, hoping that a change in climate would help the young man regain his health. Porter settled on the ranch of Richard Hall, son of Dr. James, in La Salle County. Richard raised sheep, and William helped herd the flocks, run the ranch, and even cook dinners.
During this period, the future writer learned the dialects of Spanish and German through communication with ranch workers who immigrated from other countries. In his free time, William read classical literature.
Porter's health soon improved. In 1884, the young man went with Richard to the city of Austin, where he decided to stay and settled with Richard's friends, Joseph Harrell and his wife. Porter lived with the Harrells for three years. In Austin, William got a job at the pharmaceutical company Morley Brothers as a pharmacist, and then moved to the Harrell Cigar Store. During this period, William began to write, first for fun, and then more and more passionately.
In a short period of time, Porter changed many positions and jobs: the young man worked as a cashier, accountant, and draftsman. It was in Harrell's house that the aspiring writer created a number of early novellas and short stories.
William's comrade Richard Hall became Texas commissioner and offered Porter the vacancy. The future writer started out as a drawing specialist in the land department. The salary was enough for the family not to need anything, but the man at the same time continued to engage in literary creativity as a part-time job.
On January 21, 1891, William resigned immediately after winning the election of new governor Jim Hogg. While working as a draftsman, William began developing characters and plots for the stories "Georgia's Decree" and "The Treasure."
At the same time, William got a job at a bank that was located in Austin, as a cashier and accountant. Porter was apparently careless in filling out the books, and in 1894 he was accused of embezzlement. William lost his job, but was not officially charged at the time.
After his dismissal, Porter moved to the city of Houston, where the writer devoted himself to creativity. At the same time, federal auditors examined the Austin bank and discovered shortfalls that led to the writer's dismissal. A federal indictment followed, and William was soon arrested on embezzlement charges.
William's father posted bail to keep his son out of prison. The trial was scheduled for July 7, 1896, but on the eve of the trial, the impulsive William fled first to New Orleans and then to Honduras. William lived there for only six months, until January 1897. There he became friends with Al Jennings, a notorious train robber who later wrote a book about their friendship.
In 1897, William returned to the United States after learning of his wife's illness. On February 17, 1898, a trial was held at which the writer was found guilty of embezzlement of $854.08 and sentenced to 5 years in prison. Given that Porter was a licensed pharmacist, he was able to work in the prison hospital as a night pharmacist. He was given a personal room in the hospital wing, and he did not spend a day in a prison cell.
On July 24, 1901, for good behavior after serving three years, Porter was released and reunited with his daughter. For 11-year-old Margaret, her father was on a business trip all this time.
Porter got his first literary experience in the 1880s as publisher of the humorous weekly magazine The Rolling Stone, but 1 year later the magazine ceased to exist due to insufficient funding. However, his letters and drawings caught the attention of an editor at the Houston Post.
In 1895, Porter and his family moved to Houston, where he began writing for publication in periodicals. His income was only $25 a month, but it steadily increased as the popularity of the young writer's work grew. Porter collected ideas for his pieces by walking around hotel lobbies, observing and talking to people. He used this technique throughout his career.
While hiding from arrest in Honduras at a Trujillo hotel, Porter wrote a book, Kings and Cabbages, in which he coined the term "banana republic" to describe the country. The phrase later became widely used to describe a small, unstable country with an agrarian economy.
After his arrest, in prison, William wrote 14 more stories under various pseudonyms. One of the stories, “Dick Whistler's Christmas Stocking,” was published in the December 1899 issue of McClure magazine under the pseudonym O. Henry. A friend of William's in New Orleans sent his stories to publishers so that they would not realize that the writer was serving a prison sentence.
Porter's most fruitful creative period began in 1902, when he moved to New York. There the writer created 381 stories. For more than a year, O. Henry's stories were published weekly in issues of the New York World Sunday Magazine. His wit, character types, and plot twists delighted readers, but critics often treated William's work rather coolly.
As a young bachelor, William led an active lifestyle in Austin. He was known for his wit, oratory skills and musical talents: he played the guitar and mandolin. In addition, William sang in the choir at St. David's Episcopal Church and even became a member of the Hill City Quartet, a group of young people who gave small citywide concerts.
In 1885, while laying the cornerstone of the Texas State Capitol, the charming William Porter met Athol Estes, a 17-year-old girl from a wealthy family. Athol's mother sharply objected to the union of young people and even forbade her daughter to see William. But soon the lovers, secretly from the Estes family, got married in the church of Rev. R. K. Sout, pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church.
After the wedding, the young people often participated in musical and theatrical productions, and it was Athol who encouraged her husband to continue writing. In 1888, Athol gave birth to a boy who lived only a few hours, and a year later to a daughter, Margaret Worth Porter.
After Porter was accused of embezzlement, William fled the United States to Honduras, where he continued to write. At first, the couple planned that Athol and his daughter would soon join him. However, the woman’s health did not allow her to go on such a long and difficult journey. When word reached William that Athol was seriously ill, Porter returned to Austin in February 1897 and surrendered to law enforcement officers.
Six months later, Athol Porter died. The cause of the woman’s death was tuberculosis, from which the writer’s mother also died. In memory of his beloved wife, William only has a family photo, where the writer is depicted with Athol and his daughter Margaret.
In 1907, Porter remarried Sarah (Sally) Lindsay Coleman, whom William had liked since his youth. Sarah Lindsay Coleman later wrote a romantic fictional version of their correspondence and William's courtship in her novella The Winds of Destiny. A number of other authors later wrote more reliable versions of the biography of the famous writer.
During his life, William Porter had problems associated with alcohol abuse, which worsened towards the end of the writer’s life and did not allow William to work fully. In 1909, Porter's second wife Sarah left him, and on June 5, 1910, the writer died. The cause of death of William Porter was cirrhosis of the liver and diabetes.
Eight years later, an annual literary prize was established for the best story named after O. Henry. Other writers also became winners of the prize. And in 2010, a new literary award named after O. Henry appeared, called “The Gifts of the Magi,” which is a competition of short stories and short stories in Russian in the best traditions of William Porter. Among its laureates are Evgeny Mamontov and others.
The daughter of the famous writer Margaret followed in her father's footsteps. The girl was engaged in literary activities from 1913 to 1916. Eleven years later, Margaret died of tuberculosis.
Synonyms for the name Henry. Heinrich, Harry, Amerigo, Harris, Aymeric, Garrison, Henk, Emery, Rico, Enrico, Quint, Kiko, Henricus, Genio, Geniek, Henrik, Heinz, Heike, Henrik, Henry, Hennie.
Origin of the name Henry. The name Henry is German, English, and Catholic.
The name Henry is an English name that comes from the Old French name Henry, which in modern times sounds like Henri. In turn, Henry, Henri, was formed from the German name Heinrich, which has the translation “rich homeowner”, “head of the house”, “lord of the court”.
The short form of the name Henry - Harry - in medieval England was considered a colloquial form of the name Henry. Among English kings, the name Henry was identical to the name Harry. And from both forms of the name Henry, female names were formed - Harriet and Henrietta.
The name Henry has been very popular in English-speaking countries for many centuries. In 2007, Harry was the fifth most popular boy's name in England and Wales, and is among the top 50 names in Ireland and Scotland.
There is one version according to which the name of the continent of America may come from the name of the explorer, traveler and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci. And the name Amerigo is one of the variations of the name Henry in the following sequence: Amerigo - Emerich - Henrich - Henry.
The name Henry has analogues in various languages. So in English the name Henry can sound like Aymeric, Harry, Harrison, Heriot, Gerriot, Harris, Henderson, Henk, Hal, Emery, in Italian - Amerigo, Arrigo, Rico, Engio, Enrico, in Spanish - Americo, Inrique, Quint , Kike, Kiko, Enrique. In Latin, the name Henry will sound like Aenrichus, Henricus, in Polish - Geniek, Genio, Henrik, in German it will be closer to the name Heinrich - Heinrich, Heinrik, Heinz, Hendrick, Heike, Heiko, Heiner, Henning, Henrik. In France, the boy Henry will be called Henry, Emery, Emeric, Henri, in Lithuania - Henrikas, Herkus, in the Netherlands - Hendrik, Heike, Heiko, Hein, Heino, Henk, Hennie, Henning, in Turkey - Henry.
The name Henry is also a surname. The name Henry does not have an Orthodox name day. For the name Henry, Catholic name days will be indicated, some of the dates repeat the Catholic name days of Henry.
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