Part IV (4)

O. Henry

Henry James

Jack London

O. Henry

Born: 11 September 1862 Birthplace: Greensboro,

North Carolina Died: 5 June 1910 Best Known As: American

short story writer Name at birth: William

Sydney Porter

O. Henry was the pen name of American writer William Sydney Porter.

O. Henry

He wrote for newspapers and later worked as a bank teller in Texas, where he was convicted of embezzlement; he began writing stories in prison as O. Henry. He moved to New York, where in his tales he romanticized the commonplace and pioneered in picturing the lives of lower-class and middle-class New Yorkers.

O. Henry

His collections include Cabbages and Kings (1904); The Four Million (1906), including "The Gift of the Magi"; The Trimmed Lamp (1907), including "The Last Leaf"; and Whirligigs (1910), including "The Ransom of Red Chief", The Voice of the City (1908), Options (1909), and others.

O. Henry

“The Cop and the Anthem” is a 1905 short story by O. Henry. It includes several of the classic elements of an O. Henry story, including a setting in New York City, an empathetic look at the state of mind of a member of the lower class, and an ironic ending.

O. Henry

O. Henry short stories are known for wit, wordplay, warm characterization and coincidence and surprise endings.

Henry James

Born: 15 April 1843 Birthplace: New York,

New York Died: 28 February 191

6 Best Known As: Autho

r of The Ambassadors

Henry James

Henry James, (April 15, 1843) – February 28, 1916) was an American author. He is one of the key figures of 19th century literary realism; the fine art of his writing has led many academics to consider him the greatest master of the novel and novella form. The son of theologian Henry James, Sr., brother of the philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James, he spent much of his life in England and became a British subject shortly before his death.

Henry James

1. International theme He is primarily known for a series of major novels in

which he portrayed the encounter of America with Europe. His works deal largely with the impact of Europe and its society on Americans. His fundamental theme was to be the innocence and exuberance of the New World in conflict with the corruption and wisdom of the Old. Daisy Miller (1879) won him international renown; it was followed by The Europeans (1879), Washington Square (1880), and The Portrait of a Lady (1881).

Henry James

Henry James

In The Bostonians (1886) and The Princess Casamassima (1886), his subjects were social reformers and revolutionaries. In The Spoils of Poynton (1897), What Maisie Knew (1897), and The Turn of the Screw (1898), he made use of complex moral and psychological ambiguity.

The Wings of the Dove (1902), The Ambassadors (1903), and The Golden Bowl (1904) were his great final novels.

Henry James

Henry James

2. Psychological realism Many consider Henry James to be the master of the

psychological novel. Perhaps his chief technical innovation was his strong focus on

the individual consciousness of his central characters, which reflected his sense of the decline of public and collective values in his time.

His plots centered on personal relationships, the proper exercise of power in such relationships, and other moral questions. His method of writing from the point of view of a character within a tale allowed him to explore the phenomena of consciousness and perception, thereby laying the foundations of modern stream of consciousness, and his style in later works has been compared to impressionist painting.

Henry James

3. Contribution to the art of fiction His intense concern with the novel as an art form is reflected in

the essay "The Art of Fiction" (1884), his prefaces to the volumes of his collected works, and his many literary essays.

James insisted that writers in Great Britain and America should be allowed the greatest freedom possible in presenting their view of the world, as French authors were. His imaginative use of point of view, interior monologue and unreliable narrators in his own novels and tales brought a new depth and interest to realistic fiction, and foreshadowed the modernist work of the twentieth century.

Henry James

In twenty-two novels and over a hundred short stories, he made major contribution to the art of fiction itself, helping to transform the novel from its alliances with journalism and romantic story-telling into an art form of penetrating analysis of individuals confronting society, chronicles of the psychological perceptions that James himself defined as the highest form of experience.

Henry James

An extraordinarily productive writer, in addition to his voluminous works of fiction he published articles and books of travel writing, biography, autobiography, and criticism, and wrote plays, some of which were performed during his lifetime with moderate success. His theatrical work is thought to have profoundly influenced his later novels and tales.

Jack London

Born: 12 January 1876 Birthplace: San Franci

sco, California Died: 22 November 19

16 (uremic poisoning) Best Known As: Autho

r of Call of the Wild

Jack London

The illegitimate son of an astrologer and a Welsh farm girl, he had a poverty-stricken childhood, brought up by his mother and her husband, John London. At 17, Jack London shipped as an able seaman to Japan and the Bering Sea. He was an oyster pirate, a gold-seeker in the first Klondike rush, a newspaper correspondent during the Russo-Japanese War, and in 1914 a war correspondent in Mexico.

Jack London

London won national acclaim for his short stories about the brutal and vigorous life of the Yukon, published in magazines and then in a book, The Son of the Wolf (1900). Other writings in the same genre followed; the best known is The Call of the Wild (1903), which describes how an Alaska dog leaves civilization to join a wolf pack.

In The Sea-Wolf (1904), London portrays a version of the Nietzschean superman in schooner captain Wolf Larsen, one of the most memorable characters in American literature.

Jack London

Jack London

The stress upon the primitive survival of the fittest in both books stemmed from the author's belief in many of Charles Darwin's theories of evolution. White Fang (1906), The Strength of the Strong (1911), Smoke Bellew (1912), and The Abysmal Brute (1913), as well as several volumes of tales set in the South Seas, developed similar themes.

Jack London

London was also influenced by the socialistic theories of Karl Marx. London joined the Socialist Labor Party in April 1896. In 1901, he left the Socialist Labor Party and joined the new Socialist Party of America. Often London's writings attacked social abuses and advocated Marxist beliefs. An early book, The People of the Abyss (1903), described slum conditions in London. Other books included The War of the Classes (1905), The Iron Heel (1907), and The Human Drift (1917). The second of these prophesied a fascistic revolution, which eventually would be followed by egalitarianism. The Valley of the Moon (1913) showed how a return to the land might solve social and economic problems.

Jack London

Two of London's best books are semiautobiographical - Martin Eden (1909) and John Barleycorn (1913). Martin Eden, one of London's most important books is this semi-autobiographical account of a young sailor who struggles to improve himself and achieves eventual success as a writer, but grows disenchanted with fame and wealth. It represents both an indictment of the American dream and an important reflection on London's own background and career. John Barleycorn latter tells about his long-lasting fight against alcoholism.

Jack London

Jack London

The over all pattern of London's life was tragic - youthful poverty, two unsuccessful marriages, disillusionment, in time, with the Socialist party, and finally despair and (almost certainly) suicide. London died at the age of 40.