O. Henry

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

New York short story master O. Henry (1862-1910) spent much of his life tormented by shame over the three years he'd spent in prison for embezzlement in his mid-30s. Because of his paranoid obsession with concealing this secret, the fruits of his literary success were squandered on debauchery and blackmail, according to Stuart ( Alan Watts ). Such a life may well be worthy of serious study, but nothing very serious emerges here. Stuart's prose is pretentious--a drunken O. Henry is described as one who ``tasted too often the grape''--but the book's defects are not limited to pomposity. For instance, there is smug contempt for readers offended by O. Henry's racism: `` Autres temps, autres moeurs ,'' Stuart writes, ``and if the reader doesn't know what that means, then he ought to find another author.'' Photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)

Library Journal

In 1898 bank teller Will Porter was found guilty of embezzlement and sentenced to prison. Out of that experience emerged O. Henry. Although the best known short story writer of his day, he lived in the shadows, avoiding publicity for ``fear of exposure as a jailbird.'' Stuart gives a sympathetic and well-reserached view of a life at once gloomy and filled with wit and generosity. He attempts no literary criticismfor that, the reader might try Eugene Current-Garcia's O. Henry (1965)but he differs from others in his thesis that O. Henry was innocent of the crime that sent him to prison. Because O. Henry's stories, though dated, retain great popularity, this biography can be recommended for academic and public libraries. Barbara Caroll, M.L.S., Eau Claire, Wis.