O. Henry And Romanticism

O. Henry’s life was melancholy.
Born on September 11, 1862, O. Henry is known as one of the most talented and influential writers in the history of literature. (Martin) He was born between his dad “Algernon Sydney Porter” and “Mary Jane Virginia Swaim” in Greensbro, North Carolina. He had two brothers “Shirley Worth”, and “David Weir”, but both of them died when they were young. (Merriman)
His aunt “Lina Porter” taught him writing, reading, storytelling and literature when he was a child. (Martin) His mom died when he was young, and his father became an alcoholic after her death. (Merriman) O. Henry lived a relatively depressed childhood.
O. Henry had his first job when he was fifteen. He started to work at his uncle “Clark Porte’s drug store.

Realism is a style that actually goes against romanticism. It is defined as “dealing more directly with everyday realities but in the process accepts their limits on imagination or possibility”. It occurred in the late 1800s to the early 1900s, and it is still kind of remained in modern stories. Famous authors like Mark Twain, and Henry James are the main people, who wrote at the time of realism. (Craig) However, actually O. Henry was rather a romanticist. (Miller)
O. Henry had his own style of writing
O. Henry was not only a unparalleled writer, but some people even call his stories as a new genre of literature. (Miller) Most of his stories were written for entertainment, and theu contain playfulness, sharpness and some stoicism. He used a lot of allusions in the story. (Merriman)
He is most famous with “O. Henry Endings”. (Martin) Most of the resolutions of his stories has an ironic twist in the end. (Merriman) His endings are usually unpredictable and shocking. (Martin)
O. Henry was a humble man
Even if O. Henry is now respected and praised as the greatest of short stories, he did not think himself special. He considered writing as a job to earn money for his living, not a greater career. He was surely a modest man.

He got a lot of ideas for his short story’s characters when he worked in his uncle’s drug store, because he enjoyed telling stories and drawing caricatures to the customers. (Merriman) The characters in his stories were common people who were placid and tender. (Martin) His stories proved that he was a romanticist. (Miller)
O. Henry generally wrote short stories
O. Henry wrote over 100 short stories within only 2 years while he was in New York. (Martin) He wrote even more stories throughout his life. In 1909, O. Henry published a book “The Four Million”. (Merriman) The book includes 25 short stories, and one of them is “The Skylight Room”. (Lit2go)
There are some books that are the most famous and well written. “The Book of Magi” is a love story of a poor couple buying each other a Christmas present touchingly. “The Last Leaf” is a story of a friend who draws leaves on the wall for his sick friend who believes that he will die if all the leaves fall.