Christmas Eve 1899.
McClure's Magazine features a short story called "Whistling Dick's Christmas Stocking."
The story is simple, the tramp Dick, who is good at whistling and playing all kinds of wonderful sounds.
On Christmas Eve, Dick receives a "Merry Christmas" from Miss Noble, feels a friendliness he has never felt before, and informs the Noble family that night, foiling the plot of another group of homeless people who want to take advantage of the fire.
In the face of gratitude, he finally chose to blow the whistle that symbolized "freedom" and did not quit.
The novel's idea is the traditional Christmas theme of "good thoughts", the structure is not particularly elaborate, and it does not cause any sensation.
But in just a few years, this friend who wrote stories quickly found a unique style of writing and became a rookie in the literary world that shone in the world.
He was O Henry, the greatest man in the short story world.
His works often end in unexpected twists, reading them as if they were either lost or evocative, and are known as "O.Henry-esque endings".
O. Henry (11 September 1862 – 5 June 1910)
O.Henry's real name was William Sydney Porter, and "Whistle King Dick" was his first work under the pseudonym.
Interestingly, in addition to this one, another of his most ancient masterpieces is also themed around Christmas. This is the "Gift of the Magi" that is familiar to middle school students.
Magi originally meant that when Jesus was born, he came to worship the Three Wise Men of the East.
They brought Jesus 3 gifts, gold, frankincense and myrrh, and arguably the founder of the Christmas gift-giving tradition.
"Maggie's Gift" perfectly conforms to the "Trinity" and depicts a poor young couple who give each other gifts on Christmas Eve, giving each other their most cherished things: Della secretly sells her waterfall-like brown hair in order to match her husband's ancestral gold watch with a skeletonized white gold bracelet; and Jim secretly sells the gold watch to exchange for a gorgeous set of combing supplies for Della.
"Poor couple Pepsi lament" is a classic literary theme, but the author did not waste too much ink on "mourning", but used delicate descriptions to brew the most warm and moving love.
If you have seen the experience of O.Henry himself, it is difficult not to think that when writing this novel, the author added his own love experience.
[Rose]
In his early years, O.Henry was forced to go out and wander around before finishing high school, working as a singer, actor, pharmacist, draftsman, journalist and cashier.
He settled in Austin, Texas, around the age of 20.
There he met the love of his life, Athol Estes.
The latter was 17 years old at the time and still in high school.
On July 1, 1887, the night of Athol's graduation from high school, the young and reckless young men who loved each other secretly ran to the priest's house and asked for a marriage.
When the priest saw that the two had made up their minds and were both adults, they held a marriage ceremony. Athol's mother had expected her to marry a rich man, but she was so angry that she refused to go to church for months and ignored the priest.
When the two married, O Henry was 23 and Athol was 19.
A family of three
The heroine of "Maggie's Gift", Della, once mentioned, "He was only twenty-two years old, and he took up the burden of the family";
From the photos, Athol himself is also brown-haired.
It is reasonable to speculate that it is this article that integrates into the daily life of the author and his wife that gives this fresh Christmas carol an immortal soul.
Like "Maggie", poor and sweet love also appears in many of his works.
"The Sacrifice of Love" tells the story of an art-loving couple who are in a difficult financial situation and deceive each other with white lies to support each other's dreams. The language is as light and humorous as ever, as if love and sacrifice are the joy of life itself, and poverty is just a spice.
[Rose]
In fact, many of O Henry's works explore the relationship between love and money.
Some works are not obsolete in modern times, and are slightly replaced, that is, "love stories in the north, Shanghai and Guangzhou".
"The Cut Light" tells about the mall girl who loves vanity, and finally chooses the simple and sincere youth.
"The Romantic History of a Busy Agent" uses exaggerated techniques to create an urban legend like a Korean drama.
The New York agent, who was busy all day, suddenly fell in love with the stenographer of the firm one morning, realized that he did not have time to fall in love, and directly proposed.
The story culminates at the end:
"Miss Leslie," he said hurriedly, "I have only a little free time. I use it to say a few words. Would you like to be my wife? I don't have time to talk to you in the ordinary way, but I do love you. Answer, "Those people are snapping up shares in the Pacific Railroad." ”
The stenographer's move is very strange. At first she seemed stunned; then tears flowed from her surprised eyes; then she smiled with tears of delight, and a arm gently gripped the agent's neck.
"I understand now," she said softly, "that this kind of business has made you forget everything." At first I was startled.
Don't you remember, Harvey? We had our wedding in the chapel on the corner at eight o'clock last night. ”
Because it is too busy to talk about love, and even forget the fact that the lover and are married, although exaggerated, it can be exchanged for happening in any contemporary office building, and it is not contrary to it.
More than 100 years later, "holding bricks without holding you, and putting down bricks can not support you", is still deeply and continuously plaguing contemporary young people.
The love between O.Henry and Athol begins with a happy mid-to-a-half bump and a sad ending.
In the second year after marriage, the two had a son, but unfortunately died in infancy. Next a daughter was born.
At this time, O.Henry worked as a cashier in a bank and began to write, and slowly became famous.
In 1896, he was prosecuted for embezzlement. The day before the summons, he suddenly fled in fear, fled to New Orleans, and then to Honduras.
In February of the following year, Asol fell ill with tuberculosis and died shortly thereafter. Upon learning of this, O.Henry rushed back and was arrested before he could see his wife.
In July of the same year, his wife died and O.Henry was imprisoned.
In order to maintain his daughter's life, he began to write in prison with grief, and a large number of famous articles were produced at that time, including the whistle king in the opening chapter, which was his first attempt to use O Henry as a pen name, in order to disguise the identity of the prisoner, and handed it to a friend to forward to the newspaper.
O.Henry's characters are small people in the context of big times.
Love and hope are the permanent themes, and brightness and humor are the wind moon. His life was bumpy, the loss of his son, the loss of his wife, his poverty, his displacement, his flight, his imprisonment, any pain combined with his genius, set him on the path of telling the pain of a life of bitter vengeance, which is completely understandable.
But he always tried to use soft and optimistic brushstrokes, with a little bit of harmony and fun, weaving one dream after another that transcended money and material things, and composing a warm Christmas carol for future generations.
Countless readers have re-believed in the love and goodwill of the world in the mixture of sorrow and joy, which is also the connotation of Christmas across countries and times.
English version of Maggie's gift illustration page
O.Henry moved to New York after his release from prison and remarried a few years later.
His second marriage was not happy, his financial situation began to decline, and he began to write a lot to maintain his expenses, but the quality of the manuscripts was uneven, and he was infected with the vices of alcoholism and gambling.
During this period, The Road of Destiny was filled with pessimism and fatalism.
In 1910, O.Henry fell ill during the creation of the transformational dream and died of cirrhosis two days later at the age of 48.
The "anti-O Henry ending" failed to do so, and became the end of O Henry's life...
In the moment before he dies, will he remember the summer night when he was 23 years old?
The childish brown long-haired girl took his hand and knocked on the door of the priest's house, with full of loneliness and courage, shyly repaying the promise of a lifetime:
——Yes,I do！