My Favorite Short Story Collection: The Four Million

I was tempted to say my favorite collection of short stories was Shaggy Dogs, A Collection of Not-So-Short Stories, but I am guessing here that the object is to identify the favorite collection I have read, not written. So, while the aforementioned volume will undoubtedly become your favorite collection of stories, once you buy and read it, it is disqualified from being mine. Besides that, the first and last stories in the set may actually be too long to qualify as "short stories."

On the other hand, I did not write a word of The Four Million, but I had a very enjoyable time reading it. The title refers to what was then the population of New York City, and the subject matter (well, not all 4,000,000) of the stories. The author is a gentleman named William S. Porter, but known as O. Henry.

O. Henry wrote a lot of excellent stories in a relatively short time. He did not get started as a writer, right off the bat, and, once he did, only lived to 47. I seem to be in a rut of profiling people who drank themselves into oblivion, but, there you are.

And, while I find The Four Million to be the best collection of his stories that were published in his time, he wrote enough to fill a number of books. Some of the stories you won't find in this book, such as "The Ransom of Red Chief," "The Retrieved Reformation," and "The Last Leaf," are excellent as well.

The best-known of the stories in this collection is undoubtedly, "The Gift of the Magi." It is a tale of a newlywed couple living in a sort of genteel poverty, who, nevertheless, want to treat each other to a wonderful present on their first Christmas together. The husband makes a considerable sacrifice to get his wife a splendid present, and she makes an even greater one to buy her husband something grand. There is an irony afoot-as there is in almost all of O. Henry's stories-but also, a touching lesson to be learned.

Those of you who were associated with my content as of last December may recall I posted a skit I had written for a fundraiser. The short play was called The Gift of DiMaggio. It was, obviously, a spoof of the famous O. Henry Christmas story. Except for the missing irony and even one shred of grace, it was very much like the original. Feel free to compare and contrast to your heart's content.

Probably the second best-known story in this book is "The Cop and the Anthem." It focuses on what we now would call a "street person," but what Porter, in his time, would have considered a bum. In fact, Red Skelton, in his Freddy the Freeloader character, did a production of this story for Hallmark Hall of Fame, several years ago. It was one of the finest productions that series ever put on and may have been the talented Skelton's best work as well.

While those two stories are the stars of The Four Million, they are not the only worthwhile ones in the book, by any stretch. All of them are amusing and well-written in the elegant language our literate ancestors used at the beginning of the 20^th century. Among the remaining stories, I particularly enjoyed "The Courier" and "The Brief Debut of Tildy."

Also, very amusing was "The Romance of a Busy Broker." In that story, O. Henry introduces us to a stockbroker whose typical working day is hectic to the point of distraction, and the author makes that amusingly clear in a number of ways. Then, toward the end of the tale, the broker takes a moment from his still-harried lunch break to propose to his stenographer.

"Will you be my wife?" he asks her. Then, when her answer is not immediately forthcoming, he adds: "Talk quick, please-those fellows are clubbing the stuffing out of Union Pacific."

And, naturally, when the lady finally does answer him, we get another of those gentle twists that O. Henry executes so well.

If I have piqued your interest about this book, but you feel overcome by the innumerable difficulties involved with placing a copy of same into your hot little hands, then take heart. I have had occasion earlier to mention a truly nifty site called Project Gutenberg, wherein you, the curious, but not particularly energetic, reader can bring up classics of literature and read them on-line. I have already done the legwork for you, and The Four Million (as well as many other O. Henry stories and collections) are on that site. That's Project Gutenberg, as in the guy who invented the grape press.

Personally, I like to read my short stories from an actual book. While I reserve novels for my leisurely sit-in-the-easy-chair-and-read evenings (That is, when I am not otherwise occupied as a hack writer), I save my short story and poetry collections for the boring and unpleasant task of commuting.

Also, much as I admire the wonderfully ornate language of O. Henry's era, most of the collections I read on the road are more modern stuff. Any collection by Flannery O'Connor or Stephen King is fine by me. Elmore Leonard, principally a novelist, put together an excellent collection called When the Women Come Out to Dance. J.D. Salinger, who, these days, seems only to be remembered for The Catcher in the Rye, penned a brilliant collection, two years later, simply titled Nine Stories. If you have a favorite author I haven't mentioned, look around and see if he or she does not have a set of shorter pieces so that you too may overcome the time-consuming ordeal of getting from thither to yon.

But, even if you have nowhere to go but the bathroom, The Four Million is a classy read.

Sources

Project Gutenberg

Wikipedia

O. Henry's stories