The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
“And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house...Everywhere they are the wisest. They are the magi.”
Humans are complex beings. We contain multitudes, as Walt Whitman wisely said; some, indeed, more than others.
O. Henry was born William Sydney Porter in September of 1862. His pen name is a familiar one to this day, attributable to his enviable flourish with the pen and imagination. But it is, ironically, because his real name was so well-known that he adopted the pseudonym in the first place.
In 1894, Porter launched The Rolling Stone, a weekly humor publication that gained robust public interest, circulating to nearly 10% of residents in its hometown of Austin, Texas. Publishing turned out to be too tough a business, and The Rolling Stone was shuttered after only a year in print.
Meanwhile, Porter made ends meet by working as a teller at the First National Bank of Austin. Far from developing a hum-drum career there, Porter was arrested in February of 1896 for embezzlement. It is reported that this was perhaps the result of some technical error; however, Porter foolishly fled the state, eventually ending up in Honduras. Compelled to return to the US to support his wife during a terminal illness, he was arrested, convicted, and spent 3 years in an Ohio jail.
Suffice it to say, “imprisoned for fraud” doesn’t serve as a winning backdrop for an author publishing stories as sweetly sentimental as “The Gift of the Magi.” And thus, O. Henry was born (in jail, no less!).
This jail baby made great use of his grey matter, churning out volumes of entertaining short stories. It turns out that Porter possessed one of the most valuable tools for any author: an unending fascination with people. “The Gift of the Magi” was first published in 1905 in The New York Sunday World, and was later included in his 1906 collection Four Million Stories. Why four million? That was the population of New York at the time, where Porter whiled away his days writing and drinking at the long, rosewood bar of Healy’s Café, perched at the corner of East 18th Street and Irving Place. He believed each one of those New Yorkers carried a story worth telling.
Today’s reading, the story of a young married couple struggling to demonstrate their adoration at Christmas despite their meager means, is one such worthy glimpse. It has become one of the most beloved tales of the Christmas season.
Please enjoy…
Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting "et cetera" tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribe
