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Page 108
Gallot is in Grand Rapids--maybe he will run over for a day or two.
In haste and truly yours,
W. S. P.
* * * *
[It was hard to get O. Henry to take an interest in his books. He
was always eager to be at the undone work, to be writing a new
story instead of collecting old ones. This letter came from North
Carolina. It shows how much thought he gave always to titles.]
LAND o' THE SKY, Monday, 1909.
My dear Colonel Steger: As I wired you to-day, I like "Man About Town"
for a title.
But I am sending in a few others for you to look at; and if any other
suits you better, I'm agreeable. Here they are, in preferred order:
The Venturers.
Transfers.
Merry-Go-Rounds.
Babylonica.
Brickdust from Babel.
Babes in the Jungle.
If none of these hit you right, let me know and I'll get busy again. But
I think "Man About Town" is about the right thing. It gives the city
idea without using the old hackneyed words.
I am going to write you a letter in a day or so "touchin' on and
appertainin' to" other matters and topics. I am still improving and
feeling pretty good. Colonel Bingham has put in a new ash-sifter and
expects you to come down and see that it works all right.
All send regards to you. You seem to have made quite a hit down here for
a Yankee.
Salutations and good wishes. Yours, S. P.
[This letter was found unfinished, among his papers after his
death. His publishers had discussed many times his writing of a
novel, but the following letter constitutes the only record of his
own opinions in the matter. The date is surely 1909 or 1910.]
My Dear Mr. Steger: My idea is to write the story of a man--an
individual, not a type--but a man who, at the same time, I want to
represent a "human nature type," if such a person could exist. The story
will teach no lesson, inculcate no moral, advance no theory. I want it
to be something that it won't or can't be--but as near as I can make
it--the true record of a man's thoughts, his description of his
mischances and adventures, his TRUE opinions of life as he has seen it
and his ABSOLUTELY HONEST deductions, comments, and views upon the
different phases of life that he passes through.
I do not remember ever to have read an autobiography, a biography, or a
piece of fiction that told the TRUTH. Of course, I have read stuff such
as Rousseau and Zola and George Moore and various memoirs that were
supposed to be window panes in their respective breasts; but, mostly,
all of them were either liars, actors, or posers. (Of course, I'm not
trying to belittle the greatness of their literary expression.)
All of us have to be prevaricators, hypocrites and liars every day of
our lives; otherwise the social structure would fall into pieces the
first day. We must act in one another's presence just as we must wear
clothes. It is for the best.
The trouble about writing the truth has been that the writers have kept
in their minds one or another or all of three thoughts that made a
handicap--they were trying either to do a piece of immortal literature,
or to shock the public or to please editors. Some of them succeeded in
all three, but they did not write the TRUTH. Most autobiographies are
insincere from beginning to end. About the only chance for the truth to
be told is in fiction. It is well understood that "all the truth" cannot
be told in print--but how about "nothing but the truth"? That's what I
want to do.
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