A PROPOSED MEMORIAL
TO
O. HENRY

At the last meeting of the State Literary and Historical Association of North Carolina a movement was begun for the purpose of presenting memorials of all sorts pertaining to the literature of North Carolina and its makers.  In the new Hall of History it is expected that a section will be reserved for Literature.  Here may be placed busts, medallions, portraits, miniatures, autograph letters and documents, original manuscripts of literary works, autographed copies of the works of native men and women of letters, etc., etc.

The South has many literary shrines, for the most part unnoted and uncherished.
Virginia has erected a bust of Poe at its University; and Richmond is preparing to erect a memorial to Poe's mother.  The municipality of New York City has just issued special bonds for the sum of

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five thousand dollars ($5,000.00) to remove Poe's cottage at Fordham, immortalized by a North Carolina poet, to Poe Park.  Georgia, with generous outside assistance, has just raised a like amount to purchase the "Wren's Nest," the famous home of Joel Chandler Harris.  Mississippi has done honor to her literature by erecting the first marble bust in her Hall of Fame to Irwin Russell, the discoverer of the Negro as literary material.

North Carolina is now afforded the opportunity to pay just tribute to the makers of her literature.  Of all her native authors, he who has won the most generous measure of renown, is William Sidney Porter, popularly known as O. Henry, born in Greensboro in 1862.  A master of the Short-Story, a genius of signal originality and warm, human sympathies, O. Henry achieved international fame.  His collected works, in twelve volumes, are now completed in the recent publication of the last volume. A faithful biography of him has been prepared by the late Harry Peyton

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Steger, of the firm of Doubleday, Page & Company.

Notable indeed would be the occasion of the opening of the new Hall of History and Literature, if at that time there were presented to the State of North Carolina a bust or medallion of O. Henry.  For the purpose of raising funds, the present leaflet is sent out.  A generous response from the people of North Carolina is earnestly hoped for.  Especially is it desired that every member of the Literary and Historical Association will contribute to the first memorial erected to a native author.  For this is the organization primarily dedicated to the cause of literature in North Carolina.

In token of the outspoken approval accorded the purposes of this movement, letters from those eminently qualified to speak follow below.  It is purposed, in due time, to erect memorials in honor of various figures in our literary history who have created literature and enduringly touched the consciousness of our people.

This leaflet is sent to you, because of

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your interest in all movements dedicated to the honor of the State.

Will you not make a contribution, however small, toward the erection of a suitable and worthy memorial to O. Henry?

Mail your check to
ARCHIBALD HENDERSON,
Chapel Hill, N. C.

_____

From the President of the State Literary.
and Historical Association.

Durham, N. C.

President's Office,
Trinity College.

A State ought to be careful in the erection of public memorials, for in such memorials
the State is really passing judgment upon itself-its tastes and its ideals, and it is setting standards of excellence for the present and the future.  O. Henry was a native of North Carolina who in his chosen field of the short-story stood very high.  A memorial to him would, therefore, be a just tribute to his genius and at the same time a credit to the State of his birth.

W. P. FEW.

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92 Waters Avenue,
West New Brighton, N. Y.

I am greatly pleased to hear that you and your friends have on foot a project to erect a memorial to O. Henry in his native State of North Carolina.  It would be a graceful and loyal thing for the State to do; and the memorial might find an appropriate place in your new Hall of History.  Of course, I do not need to tell you that O. Henry is a national figure.  He is the greatest of our recent short-story writers.

EDWIN MARKHAM.
_____

Charlottesville, Va.
University of Virginia.
Edgar Allan Poe School of English.

Every effort to honor the name and to perpetuate the memory of Will Porter has my hearty approval. His personality was as rich as his genius. To have known him intimately in Greensboro, N. C., till his twentieth year, I shall always esteem a

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rare privilege. Your plan is an excellent one. The first marble bust to be placed in Mississippi’s Hall of Fame was that of Irwin Russell, the discoverer of the negro as literary material. North Carolina owes it to herself to do for her greatest narrative genius, the Short-Story Historian of New York, at least as much as Mississippi did for her gifted son.

C. ALPHONSO SMITH.
_____

From O. Henry’s Biographer.

Doubleday, Page & Co., Publishers,Garden City, New York

Paeans!  It’s fine that you North Carolinians realize how big a man in our literature is O. Henry. To set up a bust or medallion of him is splendid.  In all the long list of North Carolina's sons, there will be as time goes on, none more illustrious, more abiding, than O. Henry. And it is surely meet [sic] that his own State should inaugurate the plan.  Please accept my heartiest wishes for success.

HARRY PEYTON STEGER.

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University of North Carolina.
Office of the Dean
of the
College of Liberal Arts.

Your plan for the O. Henry memorial is admirable. From every point of view his work deserves the splendid tribute of popularity that the whole country spontaneously gave it.  He may not contribute as do the others in our Hall of Fame to “life and liberty,” but he is a tremendous help in “the pursuit of happiness”!  His name will be a long time a-dying.  North Carolinians will be glad, I am sure, to commemorate in the fine way you propose, our claim to him.

EDWARD K. GRAHAM.