The Humane Master of the Short Story

O. Henry was one of the most prolific writers of modern times and perhaps the greatest of American short-story writers, correctly earning his place among the all-time legends. Born William Sydney Porter in North Carolina, his formative years and the better part of his youth was spent in Texas. It was there he met his wife Athol Estes, whom he married after a torrid love affair. It was she who in her living and dying impacted his life in unimaginable ways.
Porter was a convicted embezzler who evaded the law, but accepted a sojourn to jail in exchange for meeting his ailing wife while on the run from the law. In 1902, after the death of his wife and serving his sentence, Porter moved to New York and it was here that his most intensive period of writing short-stories occurred. Thus, much of the credit for his creativity and productivity must go to her enduring influence on him.
A Celebration of Humaneness
Some of O. Henry’s most celebrated stories include ‘The Last Leaf’ (familiar to Indians for inspiring the finale of the 2013 Bollywood film Lootera), ‘The Gift of the Magi’, ‘The Ransom of Red Chief’, ‘The Cop and the Anthem’, ‘A Retrieved Reformation’, ‘The Duplicity of Hargraves’ and ‘The Caballero’s Way’. Barring the last one (known for introducing the character of Cisco Kid), each of the stories celebrates the triumph of virtue and the sublimity and grandeur of human goodness.
Porter’s stories are known for their witty narration and surprise endings. Dramatic denouements, strong story lines and an underlying sublimity of human nature characterise his stories. He was seldom grim, rarely despondent. His narrations never ended in a hopeless, depressing outcome. In addition, he also wrote poetry and non-fiction.
His stories were a product of well-crafted accounts of his observations of men and women at public places such as pubs, restaurants, streets and shops. His capacity and perspicacity of observation were so pronounced that mere description of them made the reader identify with the characters.
Porter’s writings showed elegance and grace, a simplicity and sincerity of his protagonist’s sentiments and the eventual victory of a noble thought expressed in twisty dynamic denouements. It was the majesty of his simple words, their straightforward articulation and the essential humaneness of his themes that won his readers’ hearts.
What’s in a Name?
Porter employed several pen names. While writing essays, he had used names like S.H. Peters, James L. Bliss, T.B. Dowd and Howard Clark. But by 1902, with a dead wife, a permanent New York residence and an indefatigable commitment to the short-story genre, the name O. Henry stuck to him, a name both his readers and editors liked and popularised.
There are interesting explanations offered by researchers like William Trevor and J.F. Clarke who attributed ‘O. Henry’ to the name of prison guard Orrin Henry in the Ohio State Penitentiary who Porter liked and immortalised in one of his stories. Another theory found that Porter invoked French pharmacist Etienne Ossian Henry, and started using a shortened version of his name when he was working as a pharmacist in the Ohio prison.
Porter himself delighted in giving varied explanations for the origin of his pen name. In 1909, he told The New York Times that it was during his days in New Orleans that a friend suggested choosing a newspaper and picking a name from the first list of notables as a literary alias; he settled on Henry as a last name and again on his friend’s advice, chose a plain initial letter first name, ‘O’, as it was the easiest letter written. He once told a newspaper that the O stood for Olivier, the French for Oliver, prompting that paper to publish him as Olivier Henry.
But the most fascinating theory is the one offered by Guy Davenport who maintains that “the pseudonym that he began to write under in prison is constructed from the first two letters of Ohio and the second two and last two of Penitentiary.”
O. Henry, in his lifetime, did not have to contradict any of these versions and posthumously they only enlarged his legacy.
Legacy
O. Henry took pride in his simple turn of phrase and unidimensional characters, cringing on being titled the ‘the American De Maupassant’. On his comparison to the French master, he said, “I never wrote a filthy word in my life, and I don’t like to be compared to a filthy writer.”
Porter was no literary genius. He is not known or liked for the sophistry of dialogue or for the torturing and tormenting tussles going on in his character’s mind and heart. He did not evoke pathos, poignancy or sublime sentiments of a higher order, as other short-story writers such as Chekhov were able to do. He was not a learned connoisseur of letters or an essayist for the ages. But his writing captured and enthralled readers and never permitted their curiosity to flag. His compositions were in narrations so interesting that it captivated the reader and compelled him to go through it in an uncommonly delicious and delightful way.
His legacy includes the O. Henry Award, an annual prize awarded to outstanding short stories, having been accepted with pride by writers as eclectic as Alice Munro, Saul Bellow, Stephen King and Woody Allen. But perhaps his real immortality lies in his remaining a common man’s writer till the last, never succumbing to the temptation of being a critic’s delight. And a champion to this end, O. Henry still remains a loved, praised and most importantly, enjoyed writer of recent times.
In 2012, the US Postal Department issued a commemorative stamp in his honour. The same year, a formal application was moved before President Obama, seeking a posthumous pardon for the writer. Like in previous attempts made before Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan, it has not yet succeeded. Will O. Henry have the last word?