General review of the writer's artistic legacy

 

O. Henry (1862-1910) — the turn-of-the-century American short story writer, originally born William Sydney Porter in Greensboro, North Carolina. He was brought up by his aunt who encouraged him for reading. After school he became a clerk in his uncle’s drugstore. However his dream was to become a writer.

As a young man, he moved to Austin, Texas where he tried a variety of jobs. Finally he became a teller in the First National Bank of Austin. However, in 1894 a large sum of money (namely, $4000) was found missing, and Porter was accused of having stolen it. Not wanting to go to prison for his crime, O. Henry fled to Honduras, and stayed there for six months before returning to the United States. Upon his return, the court tried him and found guilty. He went to prison in Columbus, Ohio for 3 years eventually [45].

After he came out of prison in 1901, O. Henry moved to New York and became a professional writer [39]. O. Henry describes the life of the "little people": clerks, shop assistants and farm workers. His stories are mainly humourous and amusing, with the traditional happy end. Through the gaiety and humour of his stories, however, there can be seen social problems. The total number of short-stories written by him exceeds 600 which proves him to be a very prolific writer.

Some common themes of O'Henry are deception, mistaken identity, the effects of coincidence, the unchangeable nature of the fate and the resolution of seemingly unsolvable difficulties separating two loves.

In O. Henry's works it's the common people who save for the nights they can dress to impress and mix with the wealthy people. Some more themes are the pretense and reversal of fate, discovery and initiation through adventure, the city as a playground for imagination, and the basic yearning of all humanity. O.Henry's main theme is pretence, the desire to pose as what one is not.

Based on the setting, O'Henry's stories are split into five groups: the south, the west, Central America, Prison, and New York [41].

Although his stories are set in many parts of the US, as well as in Central and South America, O'Henry is best known for his observations on the diverse lives of everyday New Yorkers, "the four million" neglected by other writers. He had a fine gift of humor and was adept at the ingenious depiction of ironic and satirical circumstances, in plots frequently dependent upon coincidence. A master in presenting vignettes of the whirligig of fortune.

O'Henry's short stories are fun to read, presenting us with an endless variety of characters, places, and situations. In addition, they often reveal truths about life and so deepen our understanding of the human condition.

Here's the list of his literary works which includes the names of his short story collections (in bold) along with some of his most famous stories [35]:

" Cabbages and Kings" (1904);

"The Four Million" (1906): "The Gift of the Magi", "The Green Door", "From the Cabby's Scat", "An Unfinished Story", "The Caliph, Cupid and the Clock", "The Romance of a Busy Broker", "The Furnished Room";

"The Trimmed Lamp"(1907): "The Trimmed Lamp", "The Pendulum", "The Badge of Policeman O'Roon", "The Purple Dress", "A Midsummer Knight's Dream", "The Last Leaf', "The Talc of a Tainted Tenner";

"Heart of the West" (1907): "Telemachus, Friend", "The Handbook of Hymen" "The Pimienta Pancakes", "The Princess and the Puma", "The Indian Summer of Dry Valley Johnson";

"The Voice of the City"(1908): "The Voice of the City", "Squaring the Circle", "Roses, Ruses and Romance", "The Rathskeller and the Rose";

"The Gentle Grafter" (1908): "The Octopus Marooned", "Jeff Peters as a Personal Magnet", "Conscience in Art", "The Ethics of Pig";

"Roads of Destiny" (1909): "Roads of Destiny", "Friends in San Rosario"; "Phoebe", "A Double-dyed Deceiver", "The Passing of Black Eagle";

"Options" (1909): "The Third Ingredient", "The Hiding of Black Bill", "Schools and Schools", "No Story";

"Strictly Business"(1910): "Strictly Business", "A Municipal Report", "Psyche and the Pskyscraper", "Babes In The Jungle", "The Fifth Wheel", "The Poet And The Peasant", "The Robe Of Peace";

"Whirligigs" (1910): "Sociology in Serge and Straw", "The Ransom of Red Chief', "The Marty Month of May","The Whirligig of Life", "The Roads We Take", "The Song and the Sergeant", "Tommy's Burglar", "A Little Local Colour";

"Sixes and Sevens" (1911): "The Sleuths", "Makes the Whole World Kin", "Let Me Feel Your Pulse", "The Adventures of Shamrock Jolnes", "The Day We Celebrate";

"Rolling Stones"(1912): "A Fog in Santone", "A Dinner at ----*", "An Unfinished Christmas Story", "Lord Oakhurst’s Curse", "A Strange Story", "An Apology"

"Waifs and Strays" (1917): "Hearts and Hands", "The Detective Detector", "The Red Roses of Tonia", "Round The Circle", "Out of Nazareth", "Confessions of a Humorist".

O'Henry's short stories consist of a rich mixture of semi-realism, sentiment and surprise endings. O'Henry had a genuine sympathy for the downtrodden and opressed which was unusual in writers of his era [41]. And it is an era that he depicts with remarkable clarity. His stories are valuable examples of true-to-life fiction.