A talent who did not want to be digged in the earth. A philosophical reflections on the biography of O. Henry in connection with the reading up of the book "o. Henry. The Two Lives of William Sydney Porter " (The biography by A. Tanaseichuk)
Аннотация: A talent who did not want to be digged in the earth. A philosophical reflections on the biography of O. Henry in connection with the reading up of the book "O. Henry. The Two Lives of William Sydney Porter " (The biography by A. Tanaseichuk).
A talent who did not want to be digged in the earth. A philosophical sketch about the biography of O. Henry in connection with the reading up of the book 'O. Henry. The Two Lives of William Sydney Porter ' (The biography by A. Tanaseichuk).
William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), the future owner of the pseudonym O. Henry, had three important qualities.
Firstly, he had a contemplation.
Secondly, a luck.
Thirdly, a creative abilities.
A contemplation and a luck (a luckiness) - those gifts was enough to William Sydney Porter.
He lived in healthy, beautiful places among honest and noble people, drawed sketches, wrote letters, sang, played musical instruments, did not aspire to anything and enjoyed life.
But the talent did not want be digged in the earth.
An ambitious girl appeared in the life of William Sydney Porter. The young man married her.
Under her influence, Porter began to make efforts and received the first fee for publishing his work.
Around the same time, (1) a job as a cashier in a bank, (2) his own literary magazine, and (3) a vague intention to become a professional writer appeared in his life.
Both the young family and the magazine demanded means.
Suddenly, in the bank where William Sydney Porter worked as a cashier, a major lack of funds was discovered in which the cashier William Sydney Porter was charged.
The cashier had a good chance of avoiding prosecution and punishment.
But such a scenario was of little usefulness for a future literary work.
After lengthy delays, an investigation began. The cashier (who was under bail) fled to Honduras.
In Honduras, he gained experience and a plots for stories.
'The burrs were the ripe August product, as hard as filberts, and bristling with spines as tough and sharp as needles. '
But for a literary process, experience and plots alone are not enough. It is necessary to focus, to reflect.
The first wife of William Sydney Porter has changed a lot. From the cute girl who encouraged the young husband to engage in a creativity (including the issue of the magazine?), she turned into a jealous and nervous woman. Her tuberculosis worsened and she died.
William Sydney Porter was sentenced to five years in prison for embezzlement.
A life in prison was a risky variant for Porter - he could lose his health.
The former cashier had a specialty of pharmacist. In this regard, he was sent to a prison hospital, where he got the opportunity to observe what was happening around, to think, to write letters and stories, to read his works to intellectually developed friends, and where he did an attempts to publish his works in magazines.
When it was obvious William Sydney Porter became a writer at last, the former cashier-pharmacist was released ahead of schedule.
His optimal place of residence was New York. It was the city, where and contemplation, and the luck, and talent inherent to William Sydney Porter, found the application.
In New York, William Sydney Porter became popular and he was in demand, as a writer. Here he was not considered crazy, and a some local inhabitants called him 'prince' for his strange behavior.
In his youth, before all the troubles, when William Sydney Porter lived in Texas on a remote ranch, enjoyed life, contemplation and luck, 'he received a solid envelope in which a diploma was enclosed, certifying that from now William Sydney Porter is 'valid a member of the ... Reading Club in ... North Carolina,' and a letter from the club secretary, in which, in the same ornate manner, this good news was announced and the motives for the election were stated (the main of which were 'outstanding literary the merits of the works")." The Porter's detailed letters from Texas were praised by the Reading Club.
If William Sidney Porter had read the diploma and the cover letter more carefully, perhaps he would have immediately purchased the writer's shoes - without waiting for the spikes [spines].
In the biography written by Andrei Tanaseichuk, the writer's shoes appear on O. Henry only after the move of William Sydney Porter to New York. It was already after all the misadventures, associated with the discovered lack of money in the bank.
In New York, O. Henry wrote the novel "Cabbages and Kings", where a story appeared about the purchasing of shoes after a scattering a burrs ...
May 3, 2020 22:32
Translation from Russian into English: May 4, 2020 08:06.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский 'Талант, который не хотел, чтобы его зарывали. Философские размышления о биографии О.Генри в связи с прочтением книги Андрея Танасейчука 'О.Генри. Две жизни Уильяма Сидни Портера''.