Bill Porter

A Drama of O. Henry in Prison
UPTON SINCLAIR
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
COPYRIGHT, 1925
BY UPTON SINCLAIR
All rights reserved in all countries including the Scandinavian
For rights of production address the Author
Printed in the United States of America
The central figure of this play is the writer of short stories known to all the world as O. Henry. His name was William Sydney Porter; “Bill” Porter to his intimates in the Ohio State Penitentiary, where, beginning at the age of thirty-six, he served a sentence of three years and three months for embezzlement of national bank funds.
This play follows, as literally as possible, the facts concerning “Bill” Porter’s life and behavior in prison, as revealed in his letters and other published records. The writer of the play has had the advantage of much conversation with Al Jennings, who was Porter’s intimate both in prison and previously in Central America, where they had sought refuge from the law. Mr. Jennings, who appears as a character in this play, has been good enough to go over the manuscript, and the author here pays tribute to the kindness and genial spirit of an ex-train bandit, ex-convict, ex-lawyer, ex-evangelist, and almost successful candidate for governor of Oklahoma. Mr. Jennings has written a book, “Through the Shadows with O. Henry,” published by the H. K. Fly Company, also by the A. L. Burt Company.
This play deals with the soul of a creative artist, working despite ill fortune. Throughout the play there has been employed a convention additional to those customary on our stage. Whenever colored lighting is used, the scenes beheld and the characters appearing are not real, but are the children of “Bill” Porter’s brain. They may be persons who have previously appeared as real, but they are now present in the thoughts of the hero. In this form they change, they assume new personalities and take on new roles, in the magic chemistry of art. Let no one be puzzled because these artist imaginings mix up all times and places, the past and the present, the living and the dead; for that is the way of the imagination. The play tries to show a writer at work; how he takes the experiences of his life, and revises and reshapes them according to his temperament.