Аннотация: How a stories appear and when they do not appear. A note on chapters 20 - 32 of Al Jennings"s book "Through the Shadows With O. Henry".
How a stories appear and when they do not appear. A note on chapters 20 - 32 of Al Jennings's book "Through the Shadows With O. Henry".
Some time Al Jennings held a belief that he was the writer. About the literary plans of William Sydney Porter (O. Henry), he initially did not know anything.
Al Jennings presents his version of how William Sydney Porter gained confidence in his creative potential (when he was still in prison).
The opinion of Jennings on the circumstances of the emergence of the designs [intentions] of a number of stories by O. Henry is presented.
At the same time, Jennings tells how William Sydney Porter (O. Henry) refused Jennings' suggestions to write stories on a some topics. (Negative motivation is no less interesting compared to positive motivation).
A version of a kind of a creative philosophy of the writer O. Henry appears on the pages of the book by Jennings.
Jennings allegedly had the opportunity to observe O. Henry directly during the writing of a literary work (when O. Henry lived in New York, already) and even asked a naive question:
'One day he was sitting at the table with his back to me. He had been writing with incredible rapidity, as though the words just ran themselves automatically from his pen. Suddenly he stopped. For half an hour he sat silent, and then he turned around, rather surprised to find me still there.
"Thirsty, colonel? Let s get a drink."
"Bill," my curiosity was up, "does your mind feel a blank when you sit there like that?" The question seemed to amuse him.'
A slightly unexpected note for a person (for Jennings) who is himself involved in the literary creative process. However, sometimes a question is asked for a maintaining a conversation, for a continuation a theme (for a subsequent quotation of an answer?) ...
Or another similar passage from book by Jennings:
'It was the last day of 1907. For hours I had sat in Porter s room in the Caledonia [hotel name], waiting for him to finish his work. He was writing with lightning speed. Sometimes he would finish a page and immediately wrinkle it into a ball and throw it on the floor. Then he would write on, page after page, with hardly a pause, or he would sit silent and concentrated for half an hour at a stretch. I was weary of waiting. '
The information about the work of O. Henry, set forth in the book by Al Jennings, is interesting.
It is difficult to determine what proportion of a "fantasy" is in this information, and what is the share of a 'truth'. Nevertheless, the information from this book does not come in direct conflict with other known information about the creativity of O. Henry.
There are not so many literary works that have an independent literary significance, in which one writer makes an attempt to coherently and consistently expound the history of creative growth and the creative philosophy of another - more famous, more talented and more successful - writer.
As a version of the creative biography of O. Henry, the book by Al Jennings is certainly interesting.
May 5, 2020 09:09
Translation from Russian into English: May 5, 2020 18:21.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский 'Как появляются и как не появляются рассказы. Заметка о главах 20 - 32 книги Эла Дженнингса 'Сквозь тьму с О. Генри''.