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Unit 12: A Lickpenny Lover by O Henry

as the night druggist. Porter was given his own room in the hospital wing, and there is no record Notes
that he actually spent time in the cellblock of the prison. He had fourteen stories published
under various pseudonyms while he was in prison, but was becoming best known as “O Henry”,
a pseudonym that first appeared over the story “Whistling Dick’s Christmas Stocking” in the
December 1899 issue of McClure’s Magazine.

12.1.4 Later Life

Porter’s most prolific writing period started in 1902, when he moved to New York City to be
near his publishers. While there, he wrote 381 short stories. He wrote a story a week for over a
year for the New York World Sunday Magazine. His wit, characterization, and plot twists were
adored by his readers, but often panned by critics. Porter married again in 1907, to childhood
sweetheart Sarah (Sallie) Lindsey Coleman, whom he met again after revisiting his native state
of North Carolina.

Porter was a heavy drinker, and his health deteriorated markedly in 1908, which affected his
writing. In 1909, Sarah left him, and he died on June 5, 1910, of cirrhosis of the liver, complications
of diabetes, and an enlarged heart. After funeral services in New York City, he was buried in the
Riverside Cemetery in Asheville, North Carolina. His daughter, Margaret Worth Porter, who
died in 1927, was buried next to her father.
O Henry’s stories frequently have surprise endings. In his day, he was called the American
answer to Guy de Maupassant. Both authors wrote plot twist endings, but O Henry stories were
much more playful. His stories are also known for witty narration.

Notes O Henry lets the reader think that they have it figured out the ending but they do
not. He has something waiting for the readers at the end of the book. Something that
would seem like it came from nowhere. Hyder E Rollins said, “The conclusion is an
enigma.” He has the reader under suspense until the last sentence. For example, in The Gift
of Magi, where a husband sells his watch to buy some combs she worships, and the wife cut
and sold her hair to buy her husband a chain for his watch. This ending came as a surprise
because the readers might not have expected it in the beginning.
He also used to think that life is a surprise and that the unexpected continually happens.
Responding to Henry’s idea, Rollins said, “He is then a pure romanticist who strives
earnestly for realistic effects.” A Romanticist is a person who acts on impulse. They loath
conformity and following rules. He calls Henry romanticist because of his idea that life is
a surprise as it is spontaneous as you do not know what turn it will take, for the better or
worse.

Most of O Henry’s stories are set in his own time, the early 20th century. Many take place in New
York City and deal for the most part with ordinary people: clerks, policemen, waitresses, etc.
O Henry’s work is wide-ranging, and his characters can be found roaming the cattle-lands of
Texas, exploring the art of the con man, or investigating the tensions of class and wealth in
turn-of-the-century New York. O Henry had an inimitable hand for isolating some element of
society and describing it with an incredible economy and grace of language. Some of his best
and least-known work is contained in Cabbages and Kings, a series of stories each of which
explores some individual aspect of life in a paralytically sleepy Central American town, while
advancing some aspect of the larger plot and relating back one to another.

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