Gifts Of Magi By O Henry

O.Henry Continues a Special Partnership

Four years ago, on a late spring afternoon that felt much like the beastly summer we’re having, I climbed the steps to a warm cluster of offices in an old mansion on Bennett Street to meet and chat with Andie Rose, the founder of a small but creative tabloid arts monthly called PineStraw.

The idea was to determine whether Andie and I had anything resembling creative chemistry. David Woronoff, publisher of The Pilot, had approached Andie about coming to work for The Pilot and proposed to her that I become the editor of PineStraw. It had the scent of an arranged marriage.

Yet something really interesting happened.

As we sat almost knee-to-knee in her tiny little upstairs office, Andie and I began sharing our ideas for an arts and culture magazine that would not only inform readers from the Sandhills about the lively arts scene here, but also amuse, entertain, delight and possibly even inspire them to read the magazine from cover to cover.

The key to success, we agreed, would be authenticity, great writing, beautiful, clean design, and a palpable sense of wit and wonder that would take a reader someplace interesting every issue.

Andie, I learned, was a local girl who’d taken herself off to art school in the late 1970s and went on to work for several award-winning magazines in Dallas and a legendary catalog before wandering back East.

She eventually came home to the Pines, bringing her inexhaustible creativity and clever ideas to the streets of her hometown and the infant pages of PineStraw, which she and the late Brent Hackney established in the spring of 2005.

Over the past 15 years, whether it’s the restoration of the Sunrise Theater or the decorated trees you see on the streets of Southern Pines at Christmastime, you can be assured Andie played a critical role in bringing a great idea to life.

In many cases, the life-enriching ideas most of us simply take for granted were hers — though she’s far too modest to take even a shred of credit.

When I arrived, I had a thriving book-writing career going and 35 years of travels through the magazine world, highlighted by enriching stops at three legendary magazines — resulting in an unattained desire to shape and edit my own magazine using the things I absorbed at those places.

There was also some unfinished business. Back in 1988, I had been asked by my boss at Yankee Magazine to design and create a prototype for a Southern version of the beloved New England Magazine.

The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry | Sink into a Good Book…

One of my fav heart warming stories to read. The first time I read this story was for a class assignment and I was not really into it. It took me a while to concentrate on the story, but once I did I loved every word. The second time I came across the book while browsing my library and the floods of rich warm emotions came back to me. The book is about a newly married couple who do not have enough money to buy a Christmas Gift for their better half. The manner in which they sacrifice themselves really tugs at the heart strings. The story it is said was written in Pete’s Tavern in New York City by O. Henry which is actually a pen name for William Sydney Porter.

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The Gift Of The Magi

The Gift of the Magi

The Gift of the Magi

The gift of the Magi and other short stories

Selected stories from O. Henry [pseud.]