HE STATE
AM INTERVIEW WITH
Sara Coleman
Porter
(The Widen- of O. Henry)
—
«•/
—
IDA BRIGGS IIEMIERSOM
Ancestral home of Sara Coleman Porter, where O. Henry
spent the last winter of his life.
Warsaw, the
..ы
Coleman
host intend. stood jllst Off the
AsheviUe-Wcavcrullc high-
way. Here O. Henry spent hi. last win¬
ter on earth, and it »a< at this historic
old place that I visited hi* widow jest
before the
И
met lire was burned.
Sara Coleman Porter, herself a writer,
has established n worthwhile record
as an author, having to her credit two
book* and numerous serial* and short
Stories. She lias endeared hcru-lf to
many reader* bv her vivid wool picture*
and characterisation of the moun¬
taineers of the southern Appalachian
range.
The interior of her home uns atlrae
live; the panelled wall* hung with old
family portrait, and antique furuitlirc
glowing with the soft sheen that come*
from the patina of age. From the main
living room, glas* doors opened into
a sunroom made practical a* a work¬
shop by Mrs. Porter. Here I found her
seated at a table holding a portable type¬
writer. After her cordial greeting, my
first question was if she did all her own
typing:
"Ye«, indeed ; right here on my in¬
strument of war. When I found it
necessary to type my ow n work I
I»
light
a typewriter and grimly determined to
learn to Use it. Being self-taught, my
method is not graceful . . . rather a hit-
and-miss operation . . . but I inniinge
to gel mv typing done in a legible
manner."
Mr*. Porter approves romance and
constructive ending*, and think* the I*-*!
way in which to learn to write is . . .
to write . . . and write. Convinced by
her own experience she believe* the most
important qualification* for a woman
novelist are the love of writing and the
extreme patience it requires to work
over again ami again a phrase that doe*
not seem just right.
“Personally
Г
have spent hour* work¬
ing over one paragraph until it reached
my strict standard of requirement.
See!” She touched the overflowing
wastebasket; "here is concrete evidence
of what I have just •aid."
she Udicveo
that writers
never Under¬
stand alien
soil as well ns
theirow
и,
and
sugg.*t* to aspirant* in this fascinating
game that they use only local color
from their home environment in writ¬
ing.
"For example," she explained, "Olive
D.trgan truly depict* the mountaineer,
and Julia Petrrkin and ICoark Brad¬
ford skillfully portray the negro they
know so well. These authors are thor¬
oughly fntuilinr with the character*
they write about . . . therefore the
rhaructrrixiition is natural. However,
lb* bigger the talent, tile wider the
writer can roam in bit power to depict
life.”
When asked which was her favorite
author she replied: "Frankly I do not
know; 1 am specially fond of Martha
Ostenao and Pearl Buck, Galsworthy
and Martin Chapman, hut do not l- lieve
I have an actual favorite."
Several year* ago declining health
forced this busy writer to lay a<ide her
pen; but she resumed her writing in
IMS, to publish a look in
192».
She
is one of those rare souls who can enjoy
a little fun lit her own expense ami, so
in re*|Kins*- to the question a* to what
prompted her to login writing again,
she frankly answered :
"Because I honestly believe it is .im¬
ply impossible for a writer to really
quit work if they are physically able to
nidi a |“-n or operate a typewriter.
have heard it said that a writer
NEVER retires! Xot because lie i.
unwilling to deprive the world of the
pleasure to Ik- bad from reading his
eflu.ion*, but because the creative urge
is a* real to the spiritual nature as the
primitive need of food and water i* to
the physical side of one's Ising. Thu.
to deny the creative urge cause* a- murli
sincere su tiering as the actual pang* of
thirst and hunger. To cinphati/o my
point . . . Marie l>re**ler and Lionel
Barrymore had the creative instinct so
strong iii their artistic natures that it
enabled them when well pnst middle
age to make I he most marvelous come¬
back in tho history of the stage."
I asked if slie thought it necessary
for writer* to go through a preparatory
period of short-story writing or do
newspaper work as preliminary to at¬
tempting a novel, to which she replied :
"So, indeed. Some may require
study, while for others writing is ju*t
as spontaneous a* the *ong of a bird.
Just remember that Milton wrote hi.
epic ‘Paradise Lost' after he had pa**ed
the fiftieth milestone of life, and lie was
also handicapped by blindness; ‘Robin-
son Crusoe' was written by IX-Foc at
fifty-six ; and neither inan bad ever writ¬
ten a short story or worked on a new*.
|nper. George Elliott wrote her first
novel when .lie wa. past forty-nine.”
“I have been wondering, Mr*. Porter,
if you began to write because of your
association with
О. НспгуГ
I a.ked.
"So indeed. Such was not the ease,
though I have been asked that que-tion
liefore. I wrote before my marriage;
mv biggest success coming through the
.cries of Bijie stories 1 rail in the
tMiofalor. The.e were .torii-s of a
mountain Iasi whom I met one day while
.trolling along a secluded path trying
to find ail original idea for a Story. I
talked with this boy and realized lliat
material for stories lay right at my door
step. Thus Bijie was created and tlii.
ctupha-ises my theory that you bad bc.t
use material in the environment with
which vou are must familiar. Kvcn lie-
fore my marriage. Will took a deep
interest in my work. It was this com¬
munity of interest that drew us closer
together to result in happy marriage."
