Typed manuscript of the Shirley Porter account of the pen name’s origin (nd). The typed reproduction is housed in the "Pseudonym – Miscellaneous" Folder of the Greensboro Public Library's O. Henry Collection.

Note: This data was on a loose sheet, folded and in the note book.

PEN NAME

It has been stated on a number ot occasions that William Sidney Porter explained the manner in which he picked his pen name of O. Henry as follows: He and a friend were conversing in New Orleans one day when he remarked, "I have written some stuff I want to send out but I do not know if it is any good or not, so help me pick out some Nom De Plume." I His friend suggested that they get a newspaper and make up a name from its personal columns; this being acceptable the friend procured a newspaper and opened it at the society page. The first article his eyes lighted upon was a description of some function by the family of Judge, or Colonel - I forgot which - Henry Porter at once exclaimed "That will do for a last name; now I only need an initial, and as '0' is the easiest to make, I will use that and this has generally been accepted as the true explanation of how he came to assume "0. Henry" as his pen name. There is no doubt that the New Orleans newspaper incident took place just as he has stated. Apparently on the face of it, just a careless accident, and though I had long known of his sojourns in Trujillo the thought never occurred to me that there could be any sentiment connected with the simple little episode until recently I happened to run across an article by a lady writer describing an interview she had with a busy but geneal wharfmaster in that little Honduran seaport town where O. Henry was a self-exiled fugitive.

I have most unfortunately mislaid the clipping and cannot now recall the writer's name nor the exact words of her little sketch, but in substance this is what she wrote. Knowing that she was on the grounds where the scenes of his "Cabbages and Kings" were laid, she asked the wharfmaster if he had read any of O. Henry's works. He replied that he had read his "Cabbages and Kings." She then inquired if he had ever met a young man from the States by the name of Porter; his reply was "[t]hat some years before a young fellow by that name drifted into that port on a tramp fruit steamer, a very quiet chap who had very little to say and attended to his own business, and had "bunked in with him and Manuel - his assistant - for some time." When she told him O. Henry's real name was Porter he said "He had not the least doubt that it was the same chap as he had related to Porter the actual facts as he had learned of the incidents around which the story was written." The interview was frequently interrupted by calls of O. Henry - as the lady thought - and at each call the wharfmaster would turn away to give some order or attend to some duty. When she finally inquired his name she learned it was Hennery. Hearing that call "Oh Hennery" repeated so often during her short interview with the wharfmaster, she contended that here was where Porter got his pen name.

The writer was on the right trail. Knowing his nature so well and how appreciative he would be of the kindness shown him by the genial wharfmaster, and how he must have spent hours on that wharf with that call sounding in his ears, I am as confident as that I am at this moment pushing this pencil that when that name Henry dropped from the lips of his New Orleans friend years afterward the form of his old Honduran friend flashed before his mental vision and that old familiar call "Oh Hennery" rang in his ears. He was satisfied, and it was like him, when questioned regarding the matter, to give the outlines and let it go at that.

[Written by Shirley Porter]