41 Stories (62 page)

One example of O. Henry's continuing presence in American letters is The O. Henry Prize Stories. To ensure the permanent identification of O. Henry with the short story, after his death, his friends established a collection to appear annually, gathered from stories published in the preceding year, to be called The O. Henry Prize Stories. From 1919 to our own day, The O. Henry Prize Stories has been published to honor him and “to strengthen the art of the short story and to stimulate younger authors.” The O. Henry Prize Stories has always included a wide variety of writers and styles, and winning an O. Henry is one of the most coveted honors among writers of stories.

I'm especially indebted in writing this afterword to two books: Alias O. Henry by Gerald Langford (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1957) and Time to Write: How William Sidney Porter Became O. Henry by Truemann E. O‘Quinn and Jenny Lind Porter (Austin: Eakin Press, 1986).