O. Henry & Alabama

He started life as William Sydney Porter on September 11, 1862, in Greensboro, North Carolina, the son of a physician. An early job included work in an uncle's drugstore, and in August 1879 he became a licensed pharmacist. By 1882 he was living in Texas, where he hoped the climate would ease a persistent cough. There he met his first wife Athol; together they had two children. He worked at various jobs, including draftsman of maps and surveys for the Texas General Land Office and then bank clerk in Austin. He continued writing the kind of sketches and satires he had begun in North Carolina. 

Porter was fired from his bank job when an audit turned up shortages. He moved to Houston and began writing for the Post newspaper. Unfortunately, a federal audit at the Austin bank revealed the embezzlement, and Porter was indicted. On the eve of the trial he fled to New Orleans and then Honduras. During six months in that country he wrote the interlocking stories that became his novel Cabbages and Kings, set in a fictitious Central American country and published in 1904.  

Porter learned his wife was dying of tuberculosis, and he returned to Austin in February 1897; Athol died in July. In February 1898 Porter was convicted of embezzling $854.08 and his sentence of five years began the following month. He served as night druggist at the prison hospital, where he had his own room. He was released early, on July 24, 1901, having been a model prisoner.

He had continued to write, publishing stories under a variety of pseudonyms. The first one that appeared under "O. Henry", the name Porter is remembered by today, was "Whistling Dick's Christmas Stocking" published in the December 1899 issue of McClure's Magazine. 

After his release, Porter moved to New York City in 1902 to be closer to his publishers. He was also closer to the material he could use for his stories, the endless characters and human interest stories of the major city. For over a year he published a story in each issue of the New York World Sunday Magazine, 381 of them in total. He was paid $100 per story. His tales were blasted by critics, but loved by the reading public.

By 1908 his health was deteriorating badly. His second wife Sarah, a childhood love, left him in 1909, and on June 5, 1910, he died from a combination of cirrhosis of the liver, diabetes, and an enlarged heart. He was buried in his native North Carolina. 

O. Henry's stories feature melodrama and twist endings, but also have vivid characters and great, often droll humor. Some of his stories are quite touching. I'm reading through the collection below and have enjoyed every story thus far. 

More details on Henry's life and writing can be found in Jonathan Martin's essay  and C. Alphonso Smith's 1916 biography. Smith was a childhood friend of the author. That same year he also published a significant article on the author. In 1965 Eugene Current-Garcia [one of my English professors at Auburn] published a volume in the Twayne Series on United States Authors, O. Henry: William Sydney Porter. Occasional scholarly books and articles continue to be published. 

So what does all this have to do with Alabama, you ask? Well, let me explain. 

Several stories by O. Henry have significant state connections. I want to mention four of them in this post.

"The Duplicity of Hargraves" was first published in the February 1902 issue of Junior Munsey magazine and included in O. Henry's 1911 story collection Sixes and Sevens. In 1917 Thomas R. Mills directed a film version released by Broadway Star Features Company. 

The story is set in Washington, D.C., and primarily features Major Pendleton Talbot "of the old, old South", his daughter Lydia and their fellow boarding house resident, an actor named Henry Hopkins Hargraves. The Talbots arrive practically penniless; the Major is trying to finish his memoirs. Hargraves engages the pair in conversation often; as it turns out, he is studying the Major for a role he has in a play. 

I won't tell you any more, but will offer the Alabama-related quotes below. The story with its surprise O. Henry ending is well worth a read; find it here. 

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When Major Pendleton Talbot, of Mobile, sir, and his daughter, Miss Lydia Talbot, came to Washington to reside, they selected for a boarding place a house that stood fifty yards back from one of the quietest avenues.

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Major Talbot was of the old, old South. The present day had little interest or excellence in his eyes. His mind lived in that period before the Civil War when the Talbots owned thousands of acres of fine cotton land and the slaves to till them; when the family mansion was the scene of princely hospitality, and drew its guests from the aristocracy of the South. Out of that period he had brought all its old pride and scruples of honor, an antiquated and punctilious politeness, and (you would think) its wardrobe.

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After about four months in Washington, Miss Lydia discovered one morning that they were almost without money. The Anecdotes and Reminiscences was completed, but publishers had not jumped at the collected gems of Alabama sense and wit. The rental of a small house which they still owned in Mobile was two months in arrears. Their board money for the month would be due in three days. Miss Lydia called her father to a consultation.

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"I am truly sorry you took offense," he said regretfully. "Up here we don't look at things just as you people do. I know men who would buy out half the house to have their personality put on the stage so the public would recognize it."

"They are not from Alabama, sir," said the Major haughtily.

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Major Talbot, passing through the hall, saw Miss Lydia's door open and stopped.

"Any mail for us this morning, Lydia, dear?" he asked.

Miss Lydia slid the letter beneath a fold of her dress.

"The Mobile Chronicle came," she said promptly. "It's on the table in your study."

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"The Ransom of Red Chief" appeared in the Saturday Evening Post July 6, 1907, and then the collection Whirlygigs that same year. The story has been filmed several times. The best known version is probably its inclusion in the 1952 O. Henry's Full House. The story was also adapted for a segment of the ABC Weekend Special series in 1977, an opera in 1984 and a 1998 made for TV film. The basic idea has been used in various other films and shows.

Two crooks are in Alabama looking to score the rest of the funds they need for "an illegal land deal in Illinois." They decide to kidnap the young son of a rich man in the town of Summit and demand a ransom. Needless to say, events do not go as planned. I'll let you read the juicy details for yourself. 

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"It looked like a good thing. But wait till I tell you. We were down south, in Alabama – Bill Driscoll and myself – when this kidnapping idea struck us. There was a town down there, as flat as a pancake, and called Summit. Bill and I had about six hundred dollars. We needed just two thousand dollars more for an illegal land deal in Illinois."

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"Shoes" and "Ships" are two related stories that appear in Henry's collection mentioned above, Cabbages and Kings. In "Shoes" John Atwood, a dissolute consul in the Central American town of Coralio, must face the appearance of his lost love from their home town of Dalesburg, Alabama. Atwood and Rosaline renew their love and with her father return to the United States. In "Ships" Atwood's assistant deal with the fallout of his boss' actions in the first story. You can read these stories in the collection at Project Gutenberg. 

Alabama rates a mention in several other stories: "The Plutonium Fire", "Hygeia at the Solito", "The Reformation of Calliope", "The Gentle Grafter", "Thimble, Thimble", "The Rose of Dixie", and "Rolling Stones". As far as I can determine, Porter/Henry never visited the state. 

Lee Aaker and comedians Oscar Levant and Fred Allen starred in "The Ransom of Red Chief" segment of the 1952 film O. Henry's Full House. 

Haley Joel Osment starred in this film the year before he made The Sixth Sense. 

Alabama Prize Stories--1970

As I continue the effort to downsize my book collection, I keep running across interesting tomes that I simply must examine in further detail. This title is one of those.

The book published the winners of a contest sponsored by the Huntsville branch of the American Association of University Women. Nearly 200 entries were received. Judges Elise Sanguinetti, Thomas C. Turner and Oxford Stroud chose the 29  winners, who were all Alabama natives or residents of the state for at least six months. The three judges were published authors of novels and short fiction in addition to their other activities. 

The foreword is signed by "The Publishers", meaning Strode, and expresses the hope that other contests and collections will appear in the future. Apparently none did. Based in Huntsville, Strode was a very active publisher for several decades beginning in the late 1950's. David Strode Akens [1921-2012], also head of the Historical Department at the Marshall Space Flight Center in the 1960's and 1970's, steered the company as it published books on a wide range of topics. 

The collection was edited by O.B. Emerson [1921-1990]. Although born in Tennessee, he settled in Tuscaloosa, where he taught at the University from 1946 until 1986. Much of his own scholarly writing concentrated on William Faulkner and other southern writers. 

Near the beginning of his lengthy introduction Emerson notes the diversity of the collection. "In this volume there are stories of academic life, stories about the Civil War, stories that involve significant relations of Negroes and whites, stories about death, a story concerning the time of Christ. In fact there seems to be no limit to the imagination of Alabama writers. This volume is a tribute to their originality and versatility. The stories vary in tone and style as much as they do in subject matter." In the remainder of his 14-page introduction Emerson discusses each story in some detail. 

I used the "Alabama Authors" database as a measure of achievement and searched for information about all the writers in this collection. I found nine of the 29 individuals. Since Lee Smith, Jesse Hill Ford and H.E. Francis developed significant literary careers, I won't cover them further. The other six are less well known, and I'll discuss them briefly here. The remaining 20 authors would require more extensive research. However, each story in the collection has a biographical note with information about the authors' lives and writings up to 1970.

State native Helen Morgan Akens [1918-2012] taught at Huntingdon, Montevallo and Athens Colleges and served as Dean of Women at Athens. She founded Strode Publishers with her husband David. The story in this collection, "Call Me Ma", is apparently her only published fiction. She also wrote two popular histories  with Virginia Pounds Brown, Alabama, Mounds to Missiles (1962) and Alabama Heritage (1968). 

Joseph Roberts, who wrote "Ever Been to Braden?" served in the U.S. military 1942-1943 and again 1951-1968. In that year he began teaching at Troy State, a post he held until 1981. In addition to writing at least two books on fish as pets, he published a novel, Web of Life in 1957 and a book of poems in 1980. I've found no indication he published any other short fiction.

Carolynne Scott was born in Birmingham in 1937. She worked at two of that city's newspapers and other publications. In 1979 her book Country Roads: A Journey Through Rustic Alabama appeared. Her collection of 15 short stories, The Green and the Burning Alike, was published in 1992. Her story in this collection, "Far Bella Figura" later appeared in the February 1982 issue of Short Story International. Auburn University has a small collection of her papers. You can read more about her at her author page on Amazon.

John Craig Stewart [1915-2003] was a Selma native. After service in World War II, he taught at the University of Alabama (1950-1964) and the University of South Alabama (1964-1983). In addition to "The Last Day" in this collection, he had previously published the story "Outlaw Dog" in the Saturday Evening Post issue of September 24, 1955. His introduction here notes more than ten published stories. He published three novels, The First Gate (1960), Muscogee Twilight (1965) and The Last to Know (1981). I've done a blog post on him here.

"The Pink Puppy" is Nell Brasher's story in the anthology. Brasher [1912-1992]  wrote a column "Page from a Diary" for the Birmingham Post-Herald 1966-1974. A collection of short stories, The Weaning and Other Stories appeared the year after her death. Some of her columns were collected in Angel Tracks in the Cabbage Patch (1972) and other books. 

Most of the published work by Marjorie Lees Linn [1930-1979] beyond the story "Please Listen, Aunt Viney" seems to have been poetry. A collection of poems, Threads from Silence, was published the year after her death. Linn had no formal schooling after eighth grade, and she married at sixteen. Her introduction here does note publication of short stories, poetry and articles in various publication. She wrote a 1964 essay about the September 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham that killed four young girls and injured 22 others. 

An acknowledgement page in the back notes that several stories in the anthology were previously published, such as Jesse Hill Ford's and John Craig Stewart's in the Atlantic Monthly and one by H.E. Francis in Transatlantic Review. See below for the entire listing. 

This inscription is to Andreas Papandreou who was apparently a graduate student under Emerson at the University of Alabama. I found his 1976 university ID card in the book.  

I was lucky enough to have an English class with Oxford Stroud at Auburn University in the early 1970's. He was quite a teacher and raconteur. 

My Son Amos Has a New Book Out!

In March 2014 I wrote a blog post entitled "Three Generations in One Library" that discussed our family's presence on the shelves of UAB's Sterne Library. Covers of books by dad and myself are below. I also included this passage:

"My son Amos IV finished his M.A. in creative writing at UAB in 2011, and a copy of his thesis, a collection of three short stories, is held at Sterne along with all theses and dissertations done at the university. The library's catalog record for "Nobody Knows How It Got This Good" can be found here. Maybe one day Sterne will be able to buy a more formally published version."

After more than a year of anticipation since manuscript acceptance, my son Amos' collection of short stories has finally been published by Livingston Press at the University of West Alabama. The blurb on the publisher's web site notes,

"Drawing heavily on the author's experiences growing up in Central Alabama, Nobody Knows How It Got This Good explores themes of racial injustice, class, the Civil Rights Movement, environmental catastrophe, imprisonment, suburbanization, and the perennial themes of love, life and loss. 

Through sixteen stories sharing common environments and characters – a used car salesman, a cook on death row, a lynching survivor, a U.S. Census enumerator – Nobody Knows How It Got This Good, the author’s first short story collection, attempts to come to terms with the modern South. Though set in the Deep South, these stories aspire with humor and pathos to address national dilemmas."

The stories are set in the Birmingham area, and follow these characters as they move their own personal damaged landscapes in a place as problematic as Alabama and the "Magic City". Serious and funny combine in unexpected ways in this collection.

The book is available from various independent bookstores and libraries around the country, and online from Small Press Distribution, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million. The book has been reviewed by Kirkus Reviews and New Southern Fugitives. The Louisiana Book News blog has recently picked son Amos’ new collection of stories set in the #Birmingham #Alabama area for its list of “Exciting new releases by Louisiana authors”. 

Amos was interviewed about the book by Alina Stefanescu of the Alabama Writers Conclave. Deep South Magazine published a "cover reveal" back in February. The cover photo was taken by William Widmer and the cover design is by Paul Halupka. 

His fiction and poems have appeared in Arcadia, Birmingham Arts Journal, Clarion, Fieldstone Review, Folio, Grain Magazine, Gravel, The Hollins Critic, Interim, New Ohio Review, New Orleans Review, Off the Coast, Pale Horse Review, Roanoke Review, Salamander, Tacenda Literary Magazine, Union Station Magazine, Yes, Poetry and Zouch. 

After years living in Boston and Lafayette and Baton Rouge, he now lives and works in New Orleans. His author website can be found at www.amosjasperwright.com

Alabama has produced a number of short story authors, including Truman Capote and Mary Ward Brown. I'm proud to see Amos join such distinguished company!