186. The Last Leaf. O Henry Story Reintroduced By P S Remesh Chandran

186

The Last Leaf. O Henry Story Reintroduced 

P. S. Remesh Chandran
 
Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

Article Title Image By Jm TD. Graphics: Adobe SP.
 

01. O Henry Family 1890s. William, Athol and Margaret Porter By Unknown.

O. Henry was a famous American short story writer born in 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina. His real name was William Sydney Porter. He has written nearly Four hundred short stories. All his stories are full of sympathy for human beings, humour and surprise endings. It is for these twists towards the end that his stories became famous, and also for his observations on human life. It is interesting to note that his life also had this twists, turns and surprise endings. 

Neglected by the glittering art world, they engaged themselves in mundane jobs in sundry fields, often connected not in anyway to the art world.
 

The Last Leaf is a moving story about two girl artists in the old New York City and a grey-haired artist who made an inconceivable and successful sacrifice to save the life of one of them. Neglected painters can paint marvels at the risk of their life to save the life of another human being. The Last Leaf was also the Last Painting of this artist- the masterpiece he always dreamed about and he told everyone about. Painters like him were a dozen-a-dime in France, especially in Paris then as was it in New York also. Neglected by the glittering art world, they engaged themselves in mundane jobs in sundry fields, often connected not in anyway to the art world. Paradoxically, it was these unknowns’ works which sold in auction halls in posterity, fetched millions, and now adorn rich men’s mansion halls. 

He was always about to start his masterpiece but the canvass waited there for twenty five years.

02. Old O Henry house By Darryl Pearson.
 

To the old Greenwich Village west of Washington Square, art people came in flocks and settled due to the low rent there. That part of the district gradually became an artists’ colony. Two girl painters named Sue and Johnsy had their studio at the top of a three-storey brick house there. On the ground floor beneath them lived a sixty-year old artist named Berhman who became their great protector. He had wielded brush for forty years but was a failure. He always had been about to start his masterpiece but the canvass had been waiting there for twenty five years. Finally he took to drinking, and for a living served as model for the artists in the colony. He never stopped talking about his coming masterpiece. 

She was counting the number of the remaining leaves on the ivy. When the last leaf fell, she would die.

In a November month, autumn wind, rain and hail visited that village. Close behind them came Mr. Pneumonia. His icy fingers struck Miss. Johnsy and felled her. Day by day she wilted and withered and lay there still on her painted bed. Her friend Sue heard her counting backwards- eleven-ten-nine- eight-seven-six. But what was there to count in that cold artists’ room? There was nothing there to count except an old ivy plant climbing up the brick wall opposite their window. North wind had blown away nearly all its leaves and the remaining leaves and the skeletal branches clung bare to the brick wall. Johnsy was counting the number of the remaining leaves on the ivy. When the last leaf fell, she thought, she would die. 

‘The lonesomest thing in all the world is a soul when it is making ready to go on its mysterious, far journey.’

What could Sue do to solace and console her beloved friend? ‘The lonesomest thing in all the world is a soul when it is making ready to go on its mysterious, far journey.’ Sue told Berhman about her friend’s fears and fancies about when the last leaf would fall, taking her also away with it. But in spite of the incessant and heavy rain the last leaf did not fall the next morning. It did not fall for three more days in which time Johnsy regained her confidence and recovered from her illness. In fact the last leaf never fell because it was painted there in the rain and hail in the exact place of the last leaf which already had fallen. It did not even flutter or move in the wind. 

The masterpiece was created, by painting it on a plant, but the master was no more.

  
03. O Henry in 1886 By Unknown. 

On the very day Sue told Berhman about her friend’s fears, Berhman spent a dreadful night in the rain and hail in the open, standing on a ladder, painting the last leaf to the plant. A still lighted lantern, some brushes and a palette with yellow and green colour mixing and a ladder were later found in his room. So, the masterpiece was created, by painting it on a plant, but the master was no more. He was struck with pneumonia and moved to a hospital where he died after two days. Painting the last leaf exactly on the place it fell from in the night to save the girl was his masterpiece and his sacrifice. 

We would very much wish to alter the ending of the story ourselves.

Reading the story we would be thrilled, anticipating warm praises showered upon the old artist by all, but the writer rends our hearts by presenting us with the picture of his death in the end instead. We would think about altering the ending of the story ourselves to make it have a happy ending. We are perfectly free to do that in our minds for Porter won’t come and question us. We would even be forced to substitute the ending of the story with a happy and pleasant applause from everyone in the village for the dedication and ingenuity of the old artist in saving a life, but we can’t. We will still fail because the majesty and loftiness of human soul as portrayed in the end by Porter wets our eyes and numbs us and prevents us from altering the end at least in our imagination. 

THE LIFE AND WORKS OF WILLIAM SIDNEY PORTER.

Did not become a doctor but a licensed pharmacist in the same medical profession. 

William Sidney Porter was born on September 11, 1862 in Greensborough, in North Carolina to Dr. Algernon Sidney Porter and Mary Jane Virginia Porter. His mother died when he was three. The father and son went to live with the father’s mother. Young Porter was a great reader in his boyhood and his education was at his Aunt Evelina Maria Porter’s Elementary School and Lindsey Street High School. By 1881, instead of becoming a physician following the footsteps of his father he had become a licensed pharmacist but in the same medical profession, and was working in his uncle’s drugstore in Greensboro, all the while sketching people in the village around him. 

Sheep herding, ranch managing and street singing- Life in Austin, Texas. 1882- 86.

   
04. O Henry in 1902 By Unknown. 

In 1882 Porter traveled to Texas in the company of Dr. James K. Hall and lived there for two years in the doctor’s son Richard Hall’s sheep ranch. There he became familiar with sheep herding, ranch managing and rudimentary Spanish and German picked up from the immigrant ranch workers. He also read a lot. In 1884 Richard and he traveled to Austin in Texas, a place he liked much. He stayed with Richard’s friend’s family, The Harrells, for three years, working as a pharmacist, writing stories, and immersing deep in the social life of Austen, including playing music, singing in choirs and in the street, and singing night songs under the windows of young girls (serenading). How can young girls resist such ardent lovers? We will see one such entering his life later. 

Marriage, jobs, shame, magazine, and writing for the Houston Post: 1887- 99.

Porter married Athol Estes on July 1, 1887. Their daughter Margaret Worth Porter was born in September 1889. During 1887-91 Porter worked as a draftsman for the Texas General Land Office while working where he wrote several stories. From 1891 he worked as a teller and a book keeper at the First National Bank of Austin. His careless book keeping led to losing this job in 1894, having been accused of embezzlement of bank money. We do not know for sure if it was actual embezzlement or misplacement of receipts in those times of loose book keeping. In 1894, be bought a magazine and renamed it The Rolling Stone which became famous for his short stories and sketches. It lasted one year and in 1895 he was commissioned by the Houston Post to write stories and columns for them on salary. He brought his wife and daughter to Houston. 

The history of American literature would not have changed had his wife not fell ill.

  
05. William Sydney Porter in 1907 By W M Vanderweyde, New York.

In 1895 his life changed for ever. It became turbulent and even calamitous for the several years to come. The First National Bank of Austin was audited by the federal government and he was arrested for embezzlement. He was bailed out by Athol Estes’ father. In 1896, the day before he was to appear in court for trial, he changed mind and changed trains and arrived in Honduras which had not extradition treaty signed with the U. S. He had already sent his wife and daughter back to Austin from Houston and his plan was his wife and daughter would join him in Honduras and they would live forever in Honduras and never return to the United States. True, the history of American literature would not have changed had this materialized, but his wife fell ill in 1897 and could not make that journey to Honduras. The loving husband, after six months of fugitive life, returned to Austin and surrendered before the authorities to stand trial. Athol Estes died that year anyway. 

World politics and literature gets a new word: Banana Republic!

Thanks to his life as escapee for six months the world politics and literature got a new and useful word. ‘Banana Republic’ which means ‘a politically and economically unstable small nation’ was coined by him at that time to qualify a tropical Latin American nation in his Cabbages and Kings he wrote while in Honduras. Had he not been a loving husband to his wife and a loving father to his daughter and had not returned to America but decided to stay in Honduras, America would certainly have lost its greatest short story writer permanently. So we have to weigh if O. Henry was right and if America was not thankless in this affair. Remember that Porter was only 35 years then. 

America imprisoned its greatest writer for a puny little sum.

He was resigned and put up little defense and was sentenced for five years in 1898 and imprisoned at the Ohio Penitentiary, Columbus. After this conviction his late wife’s parents and his eight-year old daughter left Austen too, probably out of shame, and moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He served as pharmacist in the prison hospital and was given his own room where he continued to write stories- 14 during his stay. He was released after three years in 1901 for good behavior and went to live with the remaining family in Pennsylvania. The child never knew her father had been in prison and his publishers during this period too. Cheques were sent to a friend who delivered the stories. The amount involved in this embezzlement was $854.08 and people know today that any single story written by William Sidney Porter was worth many times this amount. So America imprisoned its greatest writer for a puny little sum. 

The name O. Henry was derived from Ohio State Penitentiary.

Many believe his pen name O. Henry was derived after Ohio State Penitentiary, i.e. ‘O Hio state pENitentiaRY’, a name he used for the first time as a revenge to send stories out from prison to editors through friends for publishing. Many others have explained its derivation other ways and he himself has explained it differently later. In 1898 he changed the spelling of his middle name Sidney to Sydney. The name O. Henry first appeared in McClure’s Magazine alongside the story Whistling Dick’s Christmas Stocking in December 1899 while he was still in jail. Sure, this name was this jail’s invaluable contribution to the world literature and there is also no proof that he endured any constraint or mistreatment in this jail. Remember that many of the finest literature in the world were produced inside jails. The names of authors who were incarcerated are a long list. Besides O. Henry, he used other pseudonyms including Olivier Henry, S. H. Peters, James L. Bliss, T. B. Dowd and Howard Clark. Anyway, this pseudonym O. Henry clicked and stuck and he soon became very famous after this name. People began to eagerly wait for his next story. 

Meeting and marrying his boyhood love.
 

In 1902 he moved to New York for convenience of publishing and began writing one story every week for one year for the New York World Sunday Magazine. He wrote with a vengeance and it was the most productive year in his life. In 1905 his childhood friend and author Sarah Lindsey Coleman recognized him through one of his stories and invited him to visit her. She was a Carolina mountains girl born in the same village of Greensboro as Porter. They got married in 1907. They had no children. 

He rose very early, sat before his typewriter for three hours, sold the story immediately, and they had a fine dinner with their guest!

Coleman also was a short story writer and the author of The Bijie Stories, Common Problem and Winds Of Destiny. It is through her that the world knew a lot about Porter. She was the one who once firmly said that ‘O. Henry was almost always broke’. Once, when an editor of a magazine was invited to their home Porter had no money to entertain the editor. So he rose very early in the morning, sat before his typewriter for three continuous hours, produced a story, took it to a magazine, sold it immediately, returned with money, and thus they had a fine dinner with their guest! Porter told her once that of the hundreds of stories he wrote none pleased him and that The Roads Of Destiny was the only one he wrote to please him while all the others were for pleasing his editors. Coleman used to tell reporters that ‘when Porter was writing, making a living was his first thought, his immediate aim’. 

The beautiful final resting place where the sun has shone and the rains and snows have fallen.
 06. O Henry's Final Resting Place- Blue Ridge Mountains Carolina By Ken Thomas.

Following his heavy consumption she left him in 1908 and he died in New York the next year on 5 June 1910 during a business trip. His ashes were brought to Asheville in North Carolina and buried there on a hillside. His grave is marked by a simple stone with the single word Porter as he would have wished. After thirty years of his death the city of Greensborough, his birthplace, requested Sarah Lindsey Coleman to authorize moving his remains to Greensborough from his burial place in Asheville in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina. She declined. She wrote about this: ‘He lies on the hillside, in a beautiful spot selected by my brother who was his good friend. There the sun has shone and the rains and snows have fallen these 30 years. I can see no point in moving him after all these years.’ 

A very generous woman who shared royalties from her husband’s books with his daughter.

Coleman was a very generous woman who shared the big royalties from her husband’s books with his daughter till the daughter died in 1927 at the age of 27. Margaret also was a writer of books for three years till 1919 when she married a New York cartoonist. She divorced in 1920, died in 1927 in California at the age of 37, and is buried next to her father. When William Sidney Porter died on 5 June 1910, Coleman returned to her family home at Weaverville. Her book published at this time, Wind of Destiny, describes their love affair and their letters. Gradually she withdrew from writing, leading a quiet life. She died at the age of 91. 

Described as ‘the American answer to Maupassant’.

The witty narration as well as the ordinary life characters makes William Porter’s stories distinct. New York City was his favourite place where he found most of his characters from. Unlike many writers, he did not go after history and the past and his characters are all contemporary to the early twentieth century. A tear or laughter always accompanies his stories as is in their lives. He ranks equal to the French short story writer Guy de Maupassant whose footsteps Porter and Somerset Maugham followed. He was even described as ‘the American answer to Maupassant’. 

America did injustice to O. Henry.

America did injustice to O. Henry, their greatest writer. His embezzling bank money was a minor offence even in those times. He could have been let off with a fine or even pardoned. Even his sentence could have been lighter. Even after he was released from jail after five years, considering his literary contributions and before-and-after law-abiding life, he could have been granted clemency and his name cleared. Even posthumously could his name have been cleared. But the American Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan and others did not care in spite of public demands, on the grounds of there being no formal applications! They built roads, schools, halls in his name and issued postal stamps. Even the courthouse where he was sentenced was named O. Henry Hall but they forgot to clear his name? 

Short Story Collections by William Sidney Porter:

07. O Henry House In 1936 at Lone Star Brewery, 600 Lone Star Boulevard, San Antonio, Bexar County, TX By Arthur W Stewart, US Govt.

Cabbages and Kings 1904, The Four Million 1906, The Trimmed Lamp 1907, Heart of the West 1907, The Gentle Grafter 1908, The Voice of the City 1908, Roads of Destiny 1909, Options 1909, The Two Women 1910, Strictly Business 1910, Whirligigs 1910, Sixes and Sevens 1911, Rolling Stones 1912, Waifs and Strays 1917, O. Henryana 1920, Postscripts 1923, and O. Henry Encore 1939. Postscripts 1923 contains poems and articles besides stories and O. Henry Encore 1939 poems and sketches also. 

There were also more than five score uncollected short stories, besides a book titled 12 Poems. 23 poems also remain uncollected. His letters from 1883 to 1928 also were published.

Written in: Not known
First published on: 24 December 2019

_________________________
Image Courtesy:Wikimedia Commons
_________________________
 

Tags:
 
American Short Story Writers, English Articles Essays, Free Student Notes, Girl Painters, New York Art World, Poor Painters Artists, Sarah Lindsey Coleman, The Last Leaf, William Sidney Porter,

About the Author P. S. Remesh Chandran:

08. Author Profile Of P S Remesh Chandran By Sahyadri Archives.

Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan: The Intelligent Picture Book. Born and brought up in the beautiful village of Nanniyode in the Sahya Mountain Valley in Trivandrum, in Kerala. Father British Council trained English teacher and Mother University educated. Matriculation with distinction and Pre Degree Studies in Science with National Merit Scholarship. Discontinued Diploma studies in Electronics and entered politics. Unmarried and single.

Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/psremeshchandra.trivandrum
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PSRemeshChandra
You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/user/bloombooks/videos
Blog: http://sahyadribooks-remesh.blogspot.com/
Site: https://sites.google.com/site/timeuponmywindowsill/
E-Mail: bloombookstvm@gmail.com

Post: P. S. Remesh Chandran, Editor, Sahyadri Books, Trivandrum, Padmalayam, Nanniyode, Pacha Post, Trivandrum- 695562, Kerala State, South India.