3. THE HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND OF O HENRy
O. Henry was an American
writer whose short stories
are known for wit,
wordplay and clever twist
endings. He wrote nearly
600 stories about life in
America.
4. He was born as William Sidney Porter on September 11,1862 in
Greensboro, north Carolina. His father Algernon Sidney Porter,
was a medical doctor. When William was three his mother died
and he was raised by his grandmother and aunt. He left school at
the age of 15 and then had a number of jobs, including bank clerk.
In 1896 he was accused of embezzlement. He absconded from the
law to New Orleans and later fled to Honduras. When he learned
that his wife was dying, he returned to US and surrendered to
police. Although there has been much debate over his actual guilt,
he was convicted of embezzling funds from the bank that employed
him, he was sentenced to 5 years in jail. In 1898 he was sent to the
penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio.
5. While in prison he began writing short stories in order to support his
young daughter Margaret. His first published story was "Whistling
Dick's Christmas Stocking" (1899). He used a pseudonym, Olivier
Henry, only once and changed his pen name to O. Henry, not
wanting his readers to know he was in jail. He published 12 stories
while in prison. After serving 3 years of the five-year sentence, he
was released for good behavior. He moved to New York City in
1902 and wrote a story a week for the New York World, and also
for other publishers. His first collection of stories was "Cabbages
and Kings" (1904). The next collection, "The Four Million" (1906),
included his well-known stories "The Gift of the Magi", "The
Skylight Room" and "The Green Door". One of his last stories, "The
Ransom of Red Chief" (1910), is perhaps the best known of his
works.
6. SUmmARy
Best seller deals with the life of a business worker
of a plate and glass company who believes that
fictions are unrealistic and according to him a man
always marries a girl of the same background.
The story stats with the narrator travelling in a
chair car on his way to Pittsburgh where he meets
John A. Pescud, an old acquaintance. John was
reading a bestseller ‘THE ROSE LADy AND
TREVELyAN’. John thought that these stories
were imaginary. Then after a little formal chat on
happenings in their lives john told that he was
married.
7. John was travelling to Cincinnati when he saw the
finest maiden of all and fell in love then he followed
her all the way to her hometown keeping a sharp
unpredictable distance from her eyes. He went in a
hotel for the night to stay where the manager on
asking said that the biggest mansion at top of the hill
was of colonel Allyn then suddenly the maiden of his
dreams came, he went to her and started the
conversation, which ended with her revealing the truth
that she knew john was following her and she was
glad that he didn't talked with her and the next
challenge to him was to enter the girl’s house which
was none other than the colonel’s mansion.
8. The next morning he went there by showing his
business card and by pretending that he
wanted to sell those plate glasses and hence
wanted to meet colonel Allyn, the place was a
dead coffin and he with shaken legs, numb
hands and crack voice talked to the colonel and
after sometime came to the point and asked for
the girl’s hand and to his surprise the colonel
gave an unexpected answer by agreeing.
9. The colonel told him a lot of stories about
his experiences, after all he got someone
to listen to his stories and unwillingly he
had to listen to him. The story ends as
train reaches to coke town and the so
called Trevelyan goes to dig petunias for
his rose lady and he addresses that the old
man is still in my house waiting to tell
more and more stories.
23. the Message of this Piece
of Literature
O. Henry had a very interesting friend ‘John’.
At first he says that the best sellers ‘THE
ROSE LADY AND TREVELYAN’ are
unrealistic and believes that a man marries
a girl of similar background. But his love
and marriage with Jessie is similar with the
best sellers. The writer wants to convey that
‘life has no geographical bound’ which
means that human beings are essentially the
same everywhere.
Notes de l'éditeur
First preached in 2004
Preached at West Side church of Christ, February 8, 2009 AM
Print Slides: 1,6,11,17,24,26
