O. HENRY: A Biography of William Sydney Porter

by David Stuart ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 30, 1987

Stuart warns in a preface that this will be about the life, not the works, of Porter, a.k.a. O. Henry, and he keeps to his word in the book that follows. Although this may be a disastrous way to write most literary lives, with O. Henry it works, as his actual experiences may have been more interesting that his somewhat faded fictions. Stuart himself apologizes for the fact that O. Henry is no longer esteemed as a writer as he was in days of yore. Stuart goes a little far, however, in claiming that the same fate has occurred to Twain and Dickens, who are also, according to him, ""no longer read."" The single most important fact of Porter's life was an incident in which, as an employee for a bank, he was made to take the fall for some executives' mishandling of funds. The prison term that resulted probably permanently marred Porter's life thereafter. He always avoided the limelight, afraid that someone might expose him as an ex-con. This melodramatic circumstance does excuse a certain predictable nickelodeon quality in his prose, although less sympathetic is a caricature that Porter was responsible for, reprinted here, in which a bank director is identified as ""Colonel Moses Mordecai,"" who charges a customer for the ""draft"" that enters the bank through ""an open door."" Such weary wit was atypical; Porter could be genuinely amusing in adversity, such as when asked how he was feeling at a time when he knew he was mortally ill, he replied, quoting Shakespeare, ""I am dying, Egypt, dying."" A courageous man, then, of his times, if not a writer to transcend the ages. Stuart patiently tells the tale in unencumbered prose, up to the very funeral of the writer, where another typical O. Henry touch appeared: a wedding party had to stand impatiently outside the church door, while the funeral went on, as both events had been booked into the same space by accident. A sympathetic portrait, then, minus any attempt at literary evaluation.

Pub Date: April 30, 1987

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Stein & Day--dist. by Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1987

Categories: NONFICTION