The magic of giving…
So…the first time I was exposed to this story was on stage
at Knott’s Berry Farm here in Southern California. It was put on by a small cast in an intimate
setting inside the reproduction of the Birdcage Theater located in Ghost
Town…it was awesome, and I was hooked on the humanity and comic irony
celebrated by this story/production.
I began to wonder who O. Henry was and where this fantastic
bit of humanity evolved from…and I should have paid more attention in my high
school literature class. It turns out O.
Henry, or William Sydney Porter, is an American literary giant (I had heard the
name but not read the works) and The Gift
of the Magi is one of his “greats”.
Originally published in December 1905 in The New York Sunday World magazine, it was not published in book
form until April of the following year.
This was a collection of stories by O. Henry entitled The Four Million. I can’t find the magazine online, which would
be the true first edition of this particular tale…but the first edition book in
which The Gift of the Magi appeared can
be read here…
The Four Million …The Gift of the Magi
A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!