Аннотация: Philosopher Al Jennings. A note on chapters 1-19 of Al Jennings"s book "Through the Shadows With O. Henry".
Philosopher Al Jennings. A note on chapters 1-19 of Al Jennings's book "Through the Shadows With O. Henry".
The book by Al Jennings "Through the Shadows With O. Henry" (1921) is among the sources of any biographer O. Henry.
Al Jennings (1863 - 1961) knew William Sydney Porter (O. Henry) during his stay in Honduras, then during the period of lodging of the future classic short story in the USA in prison, and then during the life of O. Henry in New York (when William Sydney Porter became one of the most famous writers).
Which fragments from the book by Al Jennings can be considered as a "truth", and which ones as a results of a "fantasy"?
Personally, I do not possess information to answer this question.
It seems that there are the indisputable facts: that Al Jennings is a real person, that he really maintained friendly relations with O. Henry, that Al Jennings independently wrote a rather voluminous autobiography (perhaps partially a result of fantasy) - the book "Through the Shadows With O. Henry", that in this relatively voluminous book he tried to make sense of his life, to draw portraits of different people, first of all, himself and O. Henry. The English-language Wikipedia article 'Al Jennings' contains a lot of different information about this man who knew William Sydney Porter (O. Henry) closely.
Reading several chapters of Al Jennings' book directed my attention to various fragments of the text.
Among these fragments there is a such one:
'One night he [Dick Price] turned to me with a whim sical dreaminess in his voice.
"Al, why do you suppose I was born?" he asked. "Would you say that I had ever lived?"
I couldn t think of any answer to make. I knew that I had lived and got a lot of joy out of it. I wasn t sure about Dick. He didn t wait for my verdict.
"Remember that book your friend Bill [O. Henry] slipped me? I read every story in it. It showed me just how I stack up. It told me what a real life might mean. I m 36 years old and I m dying without ever having lived. Look at this, Al."
He handed me a scrap of paper with a long list of short phrases on it.
"Those are the things I ve never done. Think of it, Al. I never saw the ocean, never sang, never danced, never went to a theatre, never saw a good painting, never said a real prayer
"Al, do you know that I never talked to a girl in my life? Never had one of them so much as give me a kind look? I d like to figure out why I was born." '
Perhaps O. Henry had the gift, the ability of turning people into philosophers?
I note that finding [Russian-language text] Al Jennings' book 'Through the Shadows With O. Henry' is a relatively difficult task (when compared with the possibility of finding other books written by other authors). Perhaps, over time, finding and reading this book [Russian-language text] will not be difficult ...
May 4, 2020 22:21
Translation from Russian into English: May 5, 2020 18:03.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский 'Философ Эл Дженнингс. Заметка о главах 1 - 19 книги Эла Дженнингса 'Сквозь тьму с О. Генри'.'.