“If he had gone back to Austin when he was called to trial, he would have been acquitted.”
This first appeared in Lit Hub literary history Newsletter—Sign up here.
Article continues after ad
Famously, O. Henry (pseudonym of William Sidney Porter), author of “The Gift of the Magi” and one of the most famous short story writers of his generation, and whose legacy is celebrated each year by the O. Henry Prize for Fiction, got his start in prison while serving a sentence for embezzlement of funds from the First National Bank in Austin, Texas, where he worked as a teller.
It is possible that Porter should not have been convicted at all: A report from 1916 The bank in question was described as “casually managed” and revealed that “patrons would come in, go behind the counter, take out a hundred or two hundred dollars and say a week later, ‘Porter, I took out $200 last week. See if I left any memo of it. I meant it.'” Times The report claims that Porter, at the time he was charged, had moved to Houston and taken a job as a columnist The Daily PostResigned before one of the “rampage charges” was brought against him, and had he gone back to Austin when called for trial, he would have been acquitted.
But he did not do so. Instead, he caught a train to New Orleans, and then boarded a fruit steamer headed for Honduras, where the law could not reach him. But in February 1897, he learned that his wife was very ill, and he returned to the States to care for her. His wife died in July, and Porter was convicted the following year, and sentenced to five years in prison for embezzlement in March 1898.
The literary world should be grateful for his bad luck, for it was in prison that Porter “composed his first serious literary work,” Times puts. To be able to send money home to support his daughter Margaret, he wrote and published 14 short stories under the pseudonym, including the story with which he became famous: O. Henry.
Porter was released early on July 24, 1901 for good behavior and returned to Pittsburgh to live with his daughter and his in-laws before moving to New York City. Most importantly, he continued to write and published his first collection of short stories in 1904, Cabbage and Kingfollowed two years later four croresWhich will include some of his most enduring stories, including “The Gift of the Magi”. He was incredibly prolific; He continued publishing until and beyond his death in 1910.
