O. Henry - Biography, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Filmography (Read)

O. Henry - biography, date of birth, place of birth, filmography, clips, Writer.

September 11, 1862, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA - June 5, 1910, New York, USA - American screenwriter, writer, recognized master of short story.

At the age of three he lost his mother, who died of tuberculosis, and was raised by his paternal aunt Evelina Porter, who was the owner of a private school. After school (at the age of 16) he began working in a pharmacy with his uncle, salesman and pharmacist (1878). He studied quickly and a year later, in 1879, received a pharmacist license. Three years later, in 1881, he left for Texas, as there were serious symptoms of tuberculosis, and it was necessary to change the climate. There he lived on the ranch of the son of a friend of Dr. Hall, Richard Hall, helped with work (once or twice a week he brought mail from the town of Konulla, helped with the preparation of 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 strengthened, he moved to Austin (Texas), where he tried different professions - he worked as an accountant in a real estate company, draftsman in the land office. Then he worked at a bank in Austin as a cashier and accountant.

The first literary experiments date back to the early 1880s. In April 1894, Porter began 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 was closed due to a lack of funds, in December Porter was fired from the bank and brought to trial in connection with a shortage (a dark case, the bank had almost no reporting, money was sometimes taken from the cash register even without the knowledge of the cashier, out of $ 6,000 shortage 5500 were returned by the owners of the bank, they also testified in favor of Porter at the trial, $ 500 was contributed by the relatives of Rocha's wife).

After being accused of embezzlement, he hid from law enforcement officers for six months in Honduras, South America. He returned in January 1897 in order to take care of his sick wife (with the same fatal tuberculosis). She passed away in July. In February 1898, he was convicted of embezzlement charges (possibly false) and imprisoned in Columbus Ohio prison (March 1898), where he spent three years and four days (until 1901). His prison number was 30664.

In prison, Porter worked in the infirmary as a pharmacist (a rare profession in prison came in handy) and wrote stories, looking for a pseudonym. In the end, he opted for the O. Henry version (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 Henry's name was taken from a secular news column in the newspaper, and the initial O was chosen as the simplest letter. He reported to one of the newspapers that O. stands for Olivier (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 the time.

Another hypothesis was put forward by the writer and scientist Guy Davenport: “O. Henry ”is nothing more than an abbreviation of the name of the prison where the author was sitting - Ohio Penitentiary (Ohio State Penitentiary). Also known as the Arena District, it burned down on April 21, 1930.

Al Jennings, who was in prison with Porter and became known as the author of the book "Through the Darkness with O. Henry" (there is a translation of the name "With O. Henry at the Bottom"), in his book says that the pseudonym is taken from the famous cowboy songs with the following lines: “The beloved returned at 12 o'clock. Tell me, O Henry, what is the verdict? "

It is believed that “The famous American writer W. Porter took the pseudonym O. Henry in honor of the physicist J. Henry, whose name was constantly pronounced with admiration by the school teacher:“ Oh! Henry! It was he who discovered that the discharge of a capacitor through a coil is oscillatory! " His first story under this pseudonym - "Dick the Whistler's Christmas Present", published in 1899 in McClure's Magazine, - he wrote in prison.

O. Henry's only novel, Cabbages and Kings, came out in 1904 (which is not a novel, but a collection of short stories, supposedly united by a common setting).

O. Henry's stories, each of which almost always contained a mass of superbly contoured faces and an original, intricate plot, quickly gained popularity among American readers. Critics began to call the writer "American Kipling", "American Maupassant", "American Gogol", "American Chekhov".

At the end of his life, Porter suffered from liver cirrhosis and diabetes.

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Author: Jane Watson