Презентация "Биография О.Генри"

O Henry

О.Henry

1862-1910 ГГ.

• William Sidney Porter was born on September 11, 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina. At the age of three, he lost his mother, who died of tuberculosis. After school, he studied to be a pharmacist, worked in a pharmacy with his uncle. Three years later, he left for Texas, tried different professions — worked on a ranch, served in the land administration. Then he worked as a cashier and accountant in a bank in the Texas city of Austin.

After being accused of embezzlement, he hid from law enforcement officers for six months in Honduras, then in South America. Upon his return to the United States, he was convicted and imprisoned in Columbus, Ohio, where he spent three years (1898-1901).

• Porter, already working in a prison pharmacy, appropriated the name of a famous French colleague – O. Henri. Having transcribed it in English, the writer found a pseudonym for publishing his work.

• He wrote his first story under this pseudonym- "Dick the Whistler's Christmas Gift", published in Mc Clure's Magazine in 1899-in prison.

• The only novel by O. Henry — "Kings and Cabbage" - was published in 1904. It was followed by collections of short stories: "Four Million" (1906), "The Burning Lamp" (1907), "The Heart of the West" (1907), " The Voice of the City "(1908)," The Noble Rogue "(1908)," The Ways of Fate "(1909)," Favorites "(1909)," Exact Deeds "(1910) and" Rotation " (1910).

• The humorist often drew the plots of his works from life. But, unlike creativity, fate did not always please the author and his relatives with a happy ending. So, the famous "Gifts of the Magi" were written after Porter from the run rushed to his dying wife for Christmas. He managed to say goodbye to his beloved on this bright holiday, and she managed to present her husband with the last gift – a gold chain for his watch. The poor woman did not know that Porter had sold this very watch a few days earlier in order to use the money to buy a ticket to his forgotten hometown.

• O. Henry's characters are diverse: millionaires, cowboys, speculators, clerks, laundresses, bandits, financiers, politicians, writers, artists, artists, workers, engineers, firefighters — replace each other. A skilled plot designer, O. Henry does not show the psychological side of what is happening, the actions of his characters do not receive a deep psychological motivation, which further enhances the surprise of the finale.

• Already during the writer's lifetime, the "short story" in his style began to degenerate into a scheme, and by the 1920s it turned into a purely commercial phenomenon: the" methodology " of its production was taught in colleges and universities, numerous manuals were published.