?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
PORTER, WILLIAM SYDNEY ("O. HENRY"). Autograph Letter Signed, "S.P.," to Harry Peyton Steger ("My Dear Col."), in pencil, sending a list of titles for an unknown work, reporting that his own health is improving, and conveying that "Colonel Bingham" requests a visit. 2 pages, folio, written on the recto and verso of a single sheet; brittling and toning overall, chipping at all edges, short closed separations at folds with complete separation at middle horizontal fold (without loss). sold as is. "Land o' the Sky" [NC], "Monday" 1909
". . . I like 'Man About Town" for a title. "But I am sending in a few others for you to look at; and if any other suits you better, I'm agreeable. Here they are, in preferred order: "The Venturers. "Transfers. "Merry-Go-Rounds. "Babylonica. "Brickdust from Babel. "Babes in the Jungle. "If none of these hit you right, let me know and I'll get busy again. But I think 'Man About Town' is about the right thing. It gives the city idea without using the old hackneyed words. . . ." Published in The Bookman magazine, vol. XXXII, where it is explained that Porter and Steger "invariably addressed each other as 'Colonel'." A Porter story with the title 'Man About Town' was published three years prior to the present letter in The Four Million.
