BC About the Author: O. Henry

O. Henry was born William Sydney Porter in Greenboro, North Carolina. His father, Algernon Sidney Porter, was a physician. When William was three, his mother died, and he was raised by his parental grandmother and paternal aunt. William was an avid reader, but at the age of fifteen he left school, and then worked in a drug store and on a Texas ranch. He continued to Houston, where he had a number of jobs, including that of bank clerk. After moving in 1882 to Texas, he worked on a ranch in LaSalle County for two years. In 1887, he married Athol Estes Roach; they had one daughter and one son (who died shortly after birth).

In 1894, Porter started a humorous weekly The Rolling Stone. When the weekly failed, he joined the Houston Post as a reporter and columnist. In 1894, cash was found to have gone missing from the First National Bank in Austin, where Porter had worked as a bank teller. When he was called back to Austin to stand trial, Porter fled to Honduras. While holed up in a Tegucigalpa hotel for several months, he wrote Cabbages and Kings, in which he coined the term "banana republic" to describe the country, subsequently used to describe almost any small, unstable tropical nation in Latin America. +/-

Little is known about Porter's stay in Central America. After hearing news that his wife was dying, he returned to Austin in 1897. After the death of his wife, he was convicted of embezzling money, although there has been much debate over his actual guilt. Porter entered a penitentiary at Columbus, Ohio.

While in prison, Porter, as a licensed pharmacist, worked in the prison hospital as the night druggist. Porter was given his own room in the hospital wing, and there is no record that he actually spent time in the cell block of the prison. Porter started to write short stories to earn money to support his daughter Margaret. A friend of his in New Orleans would forward his stories to publishers, so they had no idea the writer was imprisoned. He had fourteen stories published under various pseudonyms while he was in prison, but was becoming best known as "O. Henry." According to some sources, he acquired the pseudonym from a warder called Orrin Henry. It also could be an abbreviation of the name of a French pharmacist, Eteinne-Ossian Henry, found in the U.S. Dispensatory, a reference work Porter used when he was in the prison pharmacy.

Porter was released on July 24, 1901, for good behavior after serving three years. He moved to New York City, and from December 1903 to January 1906, he wrote a story a week for the New York World, also publishing in other magazines. Porter’s first collection, Cabbages and Kings, appeared in 1904. The second, The Four Million, was published two years later and included his well-known stories “The Gift of the Magi,” about a poor couple and their Christmas gifts, and “The Furnished Room.” Porter’s best known work is perhaps the much anthologized “The Ransom of Red Chief,” published in the collection Whirligigs in 1910. His humorous, energetic style shows the influence of Mark Twain and Ambrose Bierce. O. Henry's short stories are well known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings. Although some critics were not so enthusiastic about his work, the public loved it.

Porter published 10 collections and over 600 short stories. His last years were shadowed by alcoholism, ill health, and financial problems. He was a fast writer, but drinking on average two quarts of whiskey daily did not improve the quality of his work. In 1907, Porter a woman from his home town. The marriage was not happy, and they separated a year later. Porter died of cirrhosis of the liver on June 5, 1910, in New York. Three more collections appeared posthumously. In 1918, the O. Henry Memorial Awards were established to be given annually to the best magazine stories, the winners and leading contenders to be published in an annual volume.

BC About the Author: Truman Capote

Truman Capote was born Truman Steckfus Persons in New Orleans on September 30, 1924, to 17-year-old Lillie Mae Faulk and Archulus ("Arch") Persons, a dissolute salesman. Capote's early life was marked by instability and poverty. When Faulk and Persons separated in 1928, he was left to be raised by relatives in Monroeville, Alabama, where he began what would become a lifelong friendship with Harper Lee, later the author of the renowned novel To Kill A Mockingbird (The character Dill was said to be based on Capote). An unusual and observant child, Truman was determined to become a writer. He taught himself to read at age four and by age eight was "practicing" at writing in daily sessions. The details of the rural South, its oppressive poverty and wise, headstrong characters, impressed on the young Capote's imagination. He later drew on his memories of Alabama for some of his most famous writing. +/-

In 1933, Lillie Mae, who then called herself Nina, remarried to a successful Cuban businessman, Joe Capote. Truman soon joined the couple in New York City, where he adopted his stepfather's surname and began an uneven career as a student in both private and public high schools in New York and Connecticut. While Capote was intelligent and highly focused on writing, he was uninterested in academics, and dropped out of his fourth year of high school when offered a 2-year contract position as a copy boy at the New Yorker. There, he attracted the attention of many of the city's literary and social elite, as much for his flamboyant wardrobe as for his mature, evocative prose. In 1942, Capote published his first short story, "Miriam", in the magazine Mademoiselle, which won him the 1946 prestigious O. Henry award for Best First-Published Story. He soon gained a contract with Random House, who advanced him $1500 for his first novel.

Other Voices, Other Rooms, published in 1948, was widely publicized and remained on the New York Times best-seller list for nine weeks. With his first novel, Capote became famous as a novelist and as a controversial figure who had captured the public's imagination. Other works include The Grass Harp (a novella), Breakfast at Tiffany’s (which was quickly adapted into a movie), and In Cold Blood. With the last in the list Capote secured his reputation as one of the most important American writers of the century. A novel-length exploration of the aftermath of the real-life murder of a family in remote Holcomb, Kansas, In Cold Blood required extensive on-site research, and he took over five years to complete the manuscript. It was an international best-seller and pioneered a new genre of literature: the non-fiction novel.

In his time in the public spotlight, Capote was renowned for his social stature and for his contributions to literature. His friends included actors, authors, critics, royalty, and aristocrats, whom he entertained in famous style. In 1966, in honor of Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, Capote hosted the "Black & White Ball", a themed costume party widely regarded as the most important social event of the decade. Capote's natural talent for weaving truth with fiction and his unflinching descriptions of his friends soon led to his rapid descent in popularity in the social circles he had worked so hard to adopt. The rejection of his friends let to his increased drinking and drug use. His lack of continued sobriety in later years was matched only by his lack of work. Capote became more of a recluse and his last work, Answered Prayers (where he offended many of his friends) was published after his death. Truman Capote died on August 25, 1984, of liver failure. Today, Capote's life and works continue to capture public interest, with film versions of Other Voices, Other Rooms, In Cold Blood, and The Grass Harp released after his death. The 2005 biographical film Capote dramatized the author's often difficult process of researching In Cold Blood and was nominated for numerous awards. His presence remains alive in the 21st century, even among today's celebrated caricatures.

You can read more about Truman Capote and his body of works at this website.