William Sydney Porter The O Henry way
Sachitra Mahendra
Authors have many excuses to use pseudonyms. Mathematician Charles
Dodgson wanted to be Lewis Carroll when he wrote ‘Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland’, because he did not want to confuse the reader.
Romance writer Nora Roberts use a pseudonym for erotic fiction.
Samuel Clemens was Mark Twain for his famous ‘The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer’. The main purpose of a pseudonym or a pen name is, quite
obviously, concealing the identity.
American born William Sydney Porter adopted the pen name O Henry,
because it amused him. As the writer Guy Davenport mentions, Porter’s
pen name was a need as he was imprisoned for being guilty of
embezzlement at the bank he worked for. He had various stories published
under a number of pseudonyms during the prison period.
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Athol, Margaret and William
Sydney Porter |
Born on September 11, 1862, Porter’s health began failing with a
cough, as he grew up. He moved to Texas hoping for better health
prospects. The Texas life involved a number of jobs: pharmacist,
draftsman, bank teller, journalist and musician (Guitar and Mandolin).
His health improved a lot when he travelled to Austin. Most of his time
was spent as a licensed pharmacist, though his greatest passion and
capacity was writing. A museum is also built in memory of him in Austin.
He fell in love with Athol Estes. However his mother did not like the
relationship, as the girl was a victim of tuberculosis. The mother’s
dislike only deepened Porter’s love, making the couple elope. He had
immense backing from the wife to carry on writing. Later on his daughter
Margaret Porter also did inspire him to write.
Athol died in 1897 from tuberculosis. It is by this time Porter was
found guilty for embezzlement and jailed for five years. He could still
work as a night druggist in the prison hospital, as he was a licensed
pharmacist. According to the records he lived a privileged life owing to
his profession.
Porter met Sarah Coleman in State of North Carolina, and married her
in 1907. His health again started failing in 1908 harming his writing.
His second wife left him some years later and the heavy drinking caused
him suffer cirrhosis, diabetes and an enlarged heart.
Porter is famous for his twisting ends and clever wordplay. Many of
his stories have been translated into Sinhala and they have become
popular because of the twisting ends.
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The O Henry museum in Austin |
The best example is his famous short story ‘After Twenty Years’,
woven around a New York street. A man named Bob is on the street making
an appointment fixed twenty-years ago to meet his friend Jim.
When Bob was waiting for his friend a cop inquires him. The cop
gradually discovers that Bob is a wanted man. However the cop leaves,
and another comes and arrests Bob. The second cop’s note reads that the
first cop is Jim himself. Most of his titles are paradoxical;
“Compliments of the season” for example narrates a humorous account of
people facing misadventures during Christmas.
The political nightmares he had to suffer made Porter coin the famous
political term ‘Banana Republic’. Cabbages and Kings contains best of
his least known short stories. The stories offer a facet of average
Central American town life.
He had the capacity to mould a brilliant detailed plot out of a
normal incident in the town life. The pinnacle of Porter’s literary life
was 1902 in New York. He had authored 381 stories at the rate of one
story a week for New York World Sunday Magazine.
Although readers loved his short stories for wit and twisting ends,
he hardly got the appreciation of critics. The surprising way his
stories end are often referred to as ‘O Henry way’. In fact O Henry is
called the American Guy de Maupassant, a famous French short story
writer. Porter wrote mostly about his own period, the 20th century.
The incidents happen in New York, and characterisation contains
ordinary people. Porter had immense faith in the common man. Most of his
stories are based on common incidents. To borrow from his own wording:
‘there are stories in everything. I’ve got some of my best yarns from
park benches, map posts and newspaper stands’.
Coincidentally the first registered Sinhala national newspaper
Lakmini Pahana was also born on the same day, the same year William
Sydney Porter was born.
Some of O Henry’s short stories
A Municipal Report
The Gift of the Magi
The Ransom of Red Chief
The Cop and the Anthem
A Retrieved Reformation After Twenty Years
Compliments of the season
‘Cabbages and Kings’ and ‘The Four Million’ are two of short story
collections
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