Category: O. Henry

Popcorn and Inspiration: ‘The Cop and the Anthem’

NR | 16 min 55 sec | Drama, Comedy | 1952 In a rare on-camera appearance as narrator, John Steinbeck introduces the film, “The Cop and the Anthem,” one part of the five-part anthology film, “O. Henry’s Full House.” This adaptation of O. Henry’s light-hearted short story, directed by Henry Koster, comically ponders the double-edged nature…


O. Henry’s Short Story, ‘The Romance of a Busy Broker’

In “Essays, Letters and Miscellanies,” Leo Tolstoy says: “Stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.” Tolstoy urges us to resist the human tendency to be so consumed by work that we forget to look up and see the life that surrounds us. In his short story, “The Romance of a Busy Broker,” O….


The Dandelion as a Symbol of Hope: O. Henry’s Short Story ‘Springtime a la Carte’

Many of us, when we see dandelions, see them as simply weeds. Yet the dandelion is one of the first hopeful signs of spring and one of the most persevering and resilient plants ever. This plant grows almost anywhere. Even in the most desolate places, this little plant seems to grow and flourish. Henry conveys…


Facing Our Failures: O. Henry’s Short Story, ‘The Last Leaf’

When we fail, our natural desire is to hide from our failures, hoping they will disappear. Yet, in his short story “The Last Leaf,” O. Henry demonstrates through a young woman named Johnsy that, no matter what we have done, we can heal ourselves from our worst sicknesses by facing our failures. Johnsy (or Joanna)…


The Wisest Gifts: O. Henry’s Short Story, ‘The Gift of the Magi’

The art of giving gifts has been practiced for generations. We search for the next best thing for friends and family, always trying to find the “perfect gift.” However, the best and wisest gift is the gift of ourselves and our best to those we love. The wisest gifts stem from the deepest love. In…


O’ Henry’s ‘A Newspaper Story’: The Power of the Press

The press connects us to a community we don’t often acknowledge. It enables us to look beyond our own individual lives to notice the lives and actions of those around us. O’ Henry’s short story, “A Newspaper Story,” shows how a newspaper on a certain day has a power beyond its printed pages to do…


Short-Story Writer O. Henry’s ‘The Skylight Room’: Seemingly Irrational Hope

“Star light, star bright, The first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, Have this wish I wish tonight.” Children often wish upon a star and never doubt its ability to grant their wish; it holds their dreams. But how long do they hope in the dreams that they shoot…


Gifts From a Master: The Stories of William Sydney Porter

“One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it….