DISCOVERY 



317 



Reviews of Books 



0. Henry. A Biography. By Prof. Alphonso 

 Smith. (Hodder & Stoughton, los. 6d.) 



American writers, especially short-story writers, are 

 wonderful people. See them in real life or in evening 

 dress, and they are indistinguishable from dentists, 

 architects, or Universitj' lecturers. Talk to them, and 

 if they reply at all they will speak in soft, quiet, and 

 melodious tones, with their straw hats pressed hard 

 against their hearts. Visit them in the offices where they 

 make their stories, and there they are dictating quietly 

 to a prick-me-and-I-shaU-bleed young gentleman at a 

 typewriter. Invite them to visit you, and no men were 

 ever so quiet, so polite, so weU-behaved. It is only 

 when the lamps of their lives have gone out, and the 

 biographies have appeared, that you realise that unawares 

 you were entertaining angels of a very special kind. You 

 find that the pleasant man whom you imagined living a 

 quiet life, taking a pass degree at Harvard, marr>'ing a 

 clergT,-man's daughter, and commencing authorship with 

 a volume of poetry-, was in reality somebody very different. 

 He shone shoes at seven, dispensed drugs for his grand- 

 father at sixteen, and never went to college at all, or, if 

 he did, paid his way through by farming in the summer. 

 By thirty he had ranched in Texas, cruised in the South 

 Seas, visited Klondike, butted into one or two little 

 wars, and bought land and settled down in Kansas City, 

 Kansas. He could ride, swim, shoot, fish, hunt, and 

 box, so he didn't see why he shouldn't write also. Story 

 writing gave him just the scope for self-expression he 

 required, so he married, took atrip round the world, lived 

 in Boston, removed to 'Frisco, and finally settled down in 

 Brooklyn and wrote. Alas ! that at forty-five he died. 



I do not wish to imply that the above is to be taken 

 literally as applying to O. Henry, but he was a true 

 member of the restless and adventurous breed that it 

 describes ; the men who have had a rich experience of 

 the world, and who possess in addition the essential 

 qualities of a good story-teller or of a good conversation- 

 alist — quickness, humour, a power of seeing connections, 

 charm of manner, readiness and sympathy'. 



O. Henry was a pen-name. The real man was William 

 Sydney Porter, a native of North Carolina, who was 

 bom in 1862, and who died in New York City in 1910. 

 In early youth he gave up a post as chemist's assistant 

 for ranching in Texas. After several years of that he 

 did clerical work in various capacities in Texan cities, 

 and in his spare time sent in jokes, poems, and stories 

 of a humorous nature to the papers. The editors put 

 them in and asked for more, indeed complained that he 

 didn't send them enough. This is a complaint that many 

 writers would like to hear more frequently, and it induced 

 O. Henry to give up his clerical work for that of a reporter 

 on the Houstoun Daily Post in 1895. The next yejir a 

 calamity overtook him. He was ordered to go to Austin, 

 the state capital, to stand trial for embezzling the funds 

 of a bank in which some years previously he had been 

 teller. He started off on this journey, but before he 

 reached its end he changed his mind and his train, and 



IContinued on p. 318 



THE FINE ARTS 



THE ORIGIN, AIMS, AND CONDITIONS OF 

 ARTISTIC WORK AS APPLIED TO PAINT- 

 ING, SCULPTURE, AND ARCHITECTURE 



By G. BALDWIN BROWN, M.A., 



Watson Gordon Professor of Fine Art in the 



University of Edinburgh ; Author of " The 



Arts in Early England." 



FOURTH EDITION, REVISED, 10s. 6d. net. 



CONTENTS : 

 The Beginnings of Art — The Festival in its Relation to 

 the Form and Spirit of Classical Art — Mediaeval 

 Florence and Her Painters — Some Elements of Effect in 

 the Arts of Form — The Work of Art as Signihcant — 

 The Work of Art as Beautiful — Architectural Beauty 

 in Relation to Construction — The Conventions cf 

 Sculpture — Painting, Old and New. 



BY F. B. BRADLEY-BIRT 



Profusely Illustrated, 12s. 6d. net each. 



CHOTA NAGPORE 



"Mr. Bradley-Birt has the rare gift of style. Besides 

 pictures of remote Indian life, which are quite 

 wonderful, the book is full of attraction to the student 

 of comparative mythology." — Counlry Life. 



THE STORY OF AN INDIAN 

 UPLAND 



" The writer has the grip of style ; one feels as one reads 

 that this indeed is the real India." — The Bystamlcr. 



THROUGH PERSIA 



" It has been with real pleasure that we have read this 

 charming book, and we advise our readers to wander 

 through Persia in an ancient landau with this cheery 

 author." — Contemporary Review. 



THE ROMANCE OF AN 

 EASTERN CAPITAL (Dacca) 



"Mr. Bradley-Birt has performed a fascinating but 

 difficult task with complete success. We can recommend 

 the volume heartily." — Daily Telegraph. 



JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.l 



