April 10, 1906: The Four Million is published by William Sydney Porter, under his pen name, O. Henry. Its title references the population of New York City at the time. (The O originally stood for "Olivier," but he found that just using the initial sold more.)
Porter was born on September 11, 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina. He worked in his father's pharmacy, and then as a ranch hand in Texas. Staying in Texas, he worked at a bank, and in 1895 began writing a column for The Houston Post. In 1897, evidence was found that he had embezzled from the bank, and he was convicted the next year, sentenced to 5 years in prison. He worked in the prison pharmacy, and was paroled after 3 years.
While in prison, he did a lot of writing, and adopted the pen name O. Henry. A friend would occasionally visit, take the stories, and submit them to a publisher in New York, who had no idea he was publishing the work of a man in prison. Upon his 1901 release, Porter moved to New York to be close to the publishing house. Many of his stories were published in The New York World Sunday Magazine, owned by Joseph Pulitzer.
He was a heavy drinker, and often wrote at a table at Healy's Cafe, at 129 East 18th Street in the Gramercy Park section of Manhattan. Known as Pete's Tavern since 1922, it now bills itself as "the Oldest Operating Bar & Restaurant in New York City," claiming an opening year of 1864, even though McSorley's Old Ale House on the Lower East Side dates to 1845, the Ear Inn in Tribeca to 1817, and Fraunces Tavern in the Financial District goes all the way back to 1719, 57 years before the Declaration of Independence. At least they've kept the decor up from O. Henry's time. In contrast, his residence around the corner, at 55 Irving Place, has been torn down and replaced with a modern building.
Like Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone, and M. Night Shyamalan, director of films like The Sixth Sense, O. Henry's stories tended to have twist endings, based in irony. Indeed, a twist ending was often called "an O. Henry" ending." Most of his stories are forgotten now. But 3 from The Four Million still resonate today:
* "The Ransom of Red Chief": Two men, desperate for money, kidnap a 10-year-old rich boy and hold him for ransom. He turns out to be spoiled and insufferable, and they end up paying the father $250 to take him back.
* "The Cop and the Anthem": This story stars Soapy, whose nickname is ironic, like calling a big man "Tiny" or a fat man "Slim." Soapy is a tramp, a bum, a homeless man. He sees a leaf on the ground, having turned brown and fallen from a tree. "That was Jack Frost's card," O. Henry wrote. Soapy doesn't want to freeze to death, so his does things in the hope of getting arrested and sent to "The Island."
A modern reader might think this is a reference to Riker's Island, home of New York City's main jail. But that was not the case at the time. The island in question is Blackwell's Island, home to New York City's main jail from 1828 to 1935, 3 years after the one on Riker's opened. Blackwell's Island was renamed Welfare Island in 1921, and Roosevelt Island for FDR in 1973.
Anyway, Soapy's efforts to get arrested are foiled, until he walks into a church, has an epiphany, and resolves to change his life. He walks out of the church... and is arrested for loitering, and is sentenced to "Three months on The Island."
* "The Gift of the Magi": Della Young has just $1.87 – $62.96 in 2022 money – which she considers to be not enough to buy a Christmas present for her husband Jim. She goes to a woman who buys hair, has her long hair cut, and receives $20 ($673 today), enough money to buy a platinum fob chain to go with the watch that Jim owns and loves. As it turns out, Jim sold the watch, and used the money to buy hair-care products for Della, which, now, she can't use until her hair grows back to a respectable length.
This is O. Henry's best-known story, and has been copied many times, including in 1955 on The Honeymooners and in 1978 for the special Christmas Eve On Sesame Street.
Porter didn't have long to enjoy his success. His drinking got out of control, and he died of cirrhosis in Manhattan on June 5, 1910, only 47 years old. His only child, Margaret Porter, also had a short writing career ended by illness, and died of tuberculosis in 1927, only 38. Both are buried at Riverside Cemetery in Asheville, North Carolina, where Porter had lived for part of his youth.
The origin of the name of the Oh Henry! candy bar is in dispute, but no version of it connects it to William Sydney Porter/O. Henry. It debuted in 1920, and was discontinued in 2019.
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April 10, 1906 a Tuesday. There were no games on this historic day: The baseball season began 2 days later, the Stanley Cup had been awarded the previous month, football was in the off-season, and professional basketball didn't really exist.
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