Harold Everett Porter (19 September 1887 - 21 June 1936) was an American writer. Under the pen name of Holworthy Hall he published plays, verse, novels and short stories. He took his pseudonym from the dormitory for first-year students where he stayed at Harvard University. [1]
Porter was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the son of Albert de Lance (D.) Porter, who was first a printer in Boston, and then a publisher in New York City as owner of the A. D. Porter Co. [1] His mother, Louella née Root, was born in Ohio and raised in Massachusetts. [2]
He attended Harvard College winning a scholarship in the year 1906–1907. [3] He was on the lacrosse team in 1906–1907. [4]
Porter was the editor of the Harvard Lampoon from 1906 to 1909 and an editor of the Harvard Advocate , the campus literary magazine, from 1907 to 1909. [1]
He shared Room 13 in Holworthy Hall, the freshman's dormitory, with John Mansfield Groton, [5] next door to Robert Middlemass (with whom he collaborated on The Valiant ) and the artist Julian Ellsworth Garnsey in Room 14. [6]
After graduating in 1909 he worked at the Boston publisher Little, Brown & Co., and then with his father's firm at the A.D. Porter Company. The firm published a monthly magazine, The Housewife, which he edited. His first short story under the pseudonym Holworthy Hall was printed in The Saturday Evening Post , and he continued to write short stories for the rest of his life.
In 1916, he was named the president of the A. D. Porter Company. [1]
His short story "The Same Old Christmas Story" appeared in the 1,000th edition (or so) of the Harvard Advocate in May 1916. He was characterised in a review in the rival Harvard Crimson as a "noble graduate of 1907, with a bank account, a tender heart and too much leisure." [7]
During World War I he served in the office of the Secretary of War in Washington, D.C., working in the Military Intelligence Division, as a first lieutenant and then captain. He continued to publish stories, and was demobilized as a major in the Officer Reserve Corps. [1] His two non-fiction books date from this period.
He joined the Skaneateles Country Club in 1920. He moved to France to escape the US, living in Paris and Cannes, in a house overlooking the Mediterranean. Playing golf was a particular passion, and he wrote less and less. His marriage ended in divorce, and he returned to the US alone to live in Connecticut. He continued to write stories and died in Torrington of pneumonia, aged 48. [1]
In 1911 he married Marian 'Marnie' Heffron of Syracuse, New York. She was the daughter of Dr. John Lorenzo Heffron, the dean of the School of Medicine at Syracuse University. [1] Heffron retired in June 1922 after 40 years' connection with the teaching staff of the medical school, 15 of them as dean. [8]
After their separation/divorce she went back to the States with their three children, and became involved (as Mrs. Harold Everett Porter) with luncheons and dinners for the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Copley-Plaza Hotel. [9]
Porter was evidently a great lover of classical music, and the following lines (which originally appeared in Life magazine in 1913) evoke memories of his favourite operas, singers and musicians. [17] [18] [19]
Opera Porteri
O carmen jadlowker dalmorès
O lucia sextetta bizet;
O dippel caruso dolores,
Gioconda, o andré-caplet.
O conti, o eames tetrazzini,
O scotti mascagni farrar.
O gadski busoni puccini,
Calvé constantino, maquarre.
Ah, verdi, pagliacc' trovatore,
Aida fremstad meyerbeer;
Pol plançon and that tells the story,
The opera season is here.
William Sydney Porter, better known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American writer known primarily for his short stories, though he also wrote poetry and non-fiction. His works include "The Gift of the Magi", "The Duplicity of Hargraves", and "The Ransom of Red Chief", as well as the novel Cabbages and Kings. Porter's stories are known for their naturalist observations, witty narration, and surprise endings.
Skaneateles is an affluent village in the town of Skaneateles, in Onondaga County, New York, United States. The village is named after, and located on the shores of, Skaneateles Lake, one of the Finger Lakes. As of the 2010 census, the village had a population of 2,450 residents.
George von Lengerke Meyer was a Massachusetts businessman and politician who served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, as United States ambassador to Italy and Russia, as United States Postmaster General from 1907 to 1909 during the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt and United States Secretary of the Navy from 1909 to 1913 during the administration of President William Howard Taft.
George Barr McCutcheon was an American popular novelist and playwright. His best known works include a series of novels set in Graustark, a fictional East European country, and the novel Brewster's Millions, which was adapted into a play and several films.
Holworthy Hall, in Harvard Yard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a historic dormitory for first-year students at Harvard College.
Bela Lyon Pratt was an American sculptor from Connecticut.
Beekman Winthrop was an American lawyer, government official and banker. He served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 1904 to 1907, as assistant secretary of the Treasury in 1907–1909, and assistant secretary of the Navy in 1909–1913.
Richard Clipston Sturgis (1860-1951), generally known as R. Clipston Sturgis, was an American architect based in Boston, Massachusetts.
Henry Vaughan was a prolific and talented church architect who emigrated to America from England to bring the English Gothic style to the American branch of the Anglican Communion. He was an apprentice under George Frederick Bodley and went on to great success popularizing the Gothic Revival style.
Edward Daniel Hayden was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts.
William Stanley Beaumont Braithwaite was an African-American writer, poet, literary critic, anthologist, and publisher. His work as a critic and anthologist was widely praised and important in the development of East Coast poetry styles in the early 20th century.
Percy Duncan Haughton was an American football and baseball player and coach. He served as head football coach at Cornell University from 1899 to 1900, at Harvard University from 1908 to 1916, and at Columbia University from 1923 to 1924, compiling a career college football record of 97–17–6. The Harvard Crimson claimed national champions for three of the seasons that Haughton coached: 1910, 1912, and 1913. Haughton was also Harvard's head baseball coach in 1915 and part owner of the Boston Braves from 1916 to 1918. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1951.
Robert Middlemass was an American playwright and stage actor, and later character actor with over 100 film appearances, usually playing detectives or policemen.
The American Amateur Hockey League was an amateur ice hockey league in the United States. The league was founded in 1896, and was based in New York City and New Jersey, until 1914, when the Boston AA joined the league. In the 1900–01 season a team from Philadelphia, the Quaker City Hockey Club, also played in the AAHL. The league ceased operations after the 1916–17 season.
Daniel J. Hurley was an American football player and doctor. He played college football at the halfback position for the Harvard Crimson football team and was selected as a consensus All-American in 1904 and 1905. He was team captain for two years. Hurley was once badly injured, suffering a blood clot in the brain.
Lionel de Jersey Harvard was a young Englishman who, discovered to be collaterally descended from Harvard College founder John Harvard, was consequently offered the opportunity to attend that university, from which he graduated in 1915. The first Harvard to attend Harvard, he died in the First World War less than three years later, leaving a wife and infant son.
The Valiant is a one-act play from the 1920s by Holworthy Hall and Robert Middlemass. It became a popular play for local theater groups, and is still performed today.
Andre Morize was a professor of French literature at Harvard University from 1918 to 1951. He is well known for his involvement and activism during World War I and World War II.
William Armistead Moale Burden Sr. was an American football guard for the Harvard Crimson football team and stock broker.
Joshua Crane was an American athlete who participated in a number of sports, including court tennis, golf, and polo. He was a four time United States court tennis champion and was on the team that made the finals of the 1904 U.S. Open Polo Championship.
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