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Burning Mad · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
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  Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
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  Speaker 1: to the Cabinet of Curiosities. William Porter was a man
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  Speaker 1: of many skills. Born in Greensboro, North Carolina, in eighteen
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  Speaker 1: sixty two, he spent much of his younger years under
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  Speaker 1: his aunt's tutelage. It was his family who helped him
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  Speaker 1: develop his love of reading and learning. As he got older,
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  Speaker 1: William's aptitude extended to painting, playing the guitar, writing, and singing,
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  Speaker 1: skills that would come in handy when times got tough.
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  Speaker 1: After he graduated high school, William put his education to
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  Speaker 1: great use at his uncle's drug store, where he became
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  Speaker 1: a licensed pharmacist. In his spare time, he explored other
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  Speaker 1: creative endeavors, such as drawing and writing. But Greensboro had
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  Speaker 1: gotten a bit small for William, and the climate was
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  Speaker 1: even affecting his health. Over the years, he developed a
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  Speaker 1: bad cough that refused to heal. A family friend, doctor
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  Speaker 1: James Hall, had an idea to help him get better. Together,
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  Speaker 1: they traveled down to Austin, Texas, where William took a
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  Speaker 1: job working as a ranch hand for doctor Hall's son.
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  Speaker 1: Being outdoors and exercising daily improved his health, but he
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  Speaker 1: quickly realized that ranch hands barely made enough money to survive.
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  Speaker 1: He went back to his old ways, gaining a job
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  Speaker 1: as a pharmacist and writing short stories in his spare time.
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  Speaker 1: His stories became the talk of the town, and William
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  Speaker 1: found himself invited to gatherings all over Austin, and it
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  Speaker 1: was at one gathering in eighteen eighty five where he
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  Speaker 1: met Athel Estes, the woman he would eventually marry. Four
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  Speaker 1: years later, Athel gave birth to a daughter, Margaret. Being
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  Speaker 1: a new parent, though, came with new responsibilities, and those
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  Speaker 1: responsibilities cost money. Luckily, William's relationship with his former employer,
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  Speaker 1: Richard Hall, had survived over the years. When Richard became
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  Speaker 1: Texas Land Commissioner, he gave his old buddy William a
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  Speaker 1: cushy gig at the Texas General Land Office, drafting maps.
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  Speaker 1: The starting salary was one hundred dollars a month that's
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  Speaker 1: about today or thirty thous dollars a year. Nothing extravagance,
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  Speaker 1: but enough to live on and support a family. In turn,
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  Speaker 1: of the Century Austin through it. Although William never gave
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  Speaker 1: up on his writing. He contributed stories to newspapers and
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  Speaker 1: magazines whenever he could, and when he wasn't drawing maps,
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  Speaker 1: he was working on novels with characters based on the
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  Speaker 1: people he worked with. Unfortunately, his position within the General
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  Speaker 1: Land Office had been a political appointment, and once his
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  Speaker 1: friend Richard Hall was voted out in William had to resign.
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  Speaker 1: He's started working as a teller at the First National
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  Speaker 1: Bank of Austin, where he focused more on his writing
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  Speaker 1: than the money he was handling each day. William was
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  Speaker 1: a creative soul after all, and staring at numbers all
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  Speaker 1: day was so much less interesting than concocting new plots
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  Speaker 1: for his short stories. He didn't pay close attention to
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  Speaker 1: the records he kept, and when the bank found out,
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  Speaker 1: they fired him. Out of steady employment, William depended on
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  Speaker 1: his writing full time to make ends meet. He wrote
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  Speaker 1: for a weekly publication called The Rolling Stone. Then when
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  Speaker 1: that fizzled out, he moved his family to Houston, where
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  Speaker 1: he became a journalist for the Houston Post newspaper. Things
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  Speaker 1: started looking up for William, who had gone through several
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  Speaker 1: jobs in only a few years. His work at the
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  Speaker 1: Houston Post was even getting his name out there, as
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  Speaker 1: were his published fiction stories. However, unbeknownst to William, his
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  Speaker 1: name was also on the lips of investigators. Back in Austin.
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  Speaker 1: Federal auditors had discovered the lost uns that had gotten
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  Speaker 1: him fired. It didn't take long for them to officially
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  Speaker 1: charge him with embezzlement. William tried to run, but his
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  Speaker 1: wife's health had taken a sharp turn, and with her
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  Speaker 1: death looming, he decided to turn himself in. He was
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  Speaker 1: sentenced to five years at the Ohio State Penitentiary, where
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  Speaker 1: his background as a pharmacist came in handy. He got
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  Speaker 1: a job within the prison as the night druggist while
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  Speaker 1: he continued to publish his writing from his jail cell. Now,
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  Speaker 1: no prison was going to allow one of their inmates
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  Speaker 1: to have short fiction published while that inmate was serving
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  Speaker 1: out a sentence for embezzlement. But where there was a will,
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  Speaker 1: there was a way. Pun intended, of course, he sent
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  Speaker 1: his stories to a friend in New Orleans, who would
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  Speaker 1: then forward them onto publishers to hide the author's current situation.
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  Speaker 1: If the warden had ever found out about William's use
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  Speaker 1: of prison resources to further his writing career, he would
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  Speaker 1: have been in a lot of trouble, and the privileges
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  Speaker 1: he'd earned thus far would have been revoked as a
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  Speaker 1: fool proof way to distance himself from his work. William
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  Speaker 1: always authored his stories under one of many pseudonyms, but
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  Speaker 1: there was one that really took off during his stay
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  Speaker 1: at Ohio State. According to an interview he gave to
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  Speaker 1: The New York Times later in his life, he found
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  Speaker 1: the name while reading a story in the newspaper about
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  Speaker 1: a notable guest at a fancy ball, but that anecdote
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  Speaker 1: lacks the pizzazz we've come to expect from great historical figures.
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  Speaker 1: In a book about William Porter from nineteen seventy three,
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  Speaker 1: the author claimed William's pen name was born the same
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  Speaker 1: way all of his characters were, by using the people
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  Speaker 1: around him to influence his work. This time it was
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  Speaker 1: a prison guard by the name of Oran. Oran Henry.
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  Speaker 1: William Porter chopped off most of his name except for
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  Speaker 1: the initial letter, giving him a name we still remember today.
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  Speaker 1: There's even a short story award named in his honor,
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  Speaker 1: Oh Henry. When I look back on my middle and
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  Speaker 1: high school English classes. Certain authors come to mind immediately, Hemingway,
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  Speaker 1: of course, but also Jack London, J. D. Salinger, and
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  Speaker 1: one other writer in particular. His tale of Pirates, buried
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  Speaker 1: treasure and Tropical Islands is taught in schools all over
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  Speaker 1: the world and has been translated into countless languages. But
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  Speaker 1: it's his other story, the Gothic tale about dual personalities,
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  Speaker 1: that's really stuck with me over the years, and it's
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  Speaker 1: stuck with its author, Robert Louis Stevenson as well. The
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  Speaker 1: Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was first
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  Speaker 1: published in eight six, but parts of it were published
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  Speaker 1: in plays and short stories before then. Stevenson had searched
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  Speaker 1: for years for a way to tell the perfect good
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  Speaker 1: versus evil story, until the idea came to him in
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  Speaker 1: a dream. Suddenly inspired one night, he toiled for days,
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  Speaker 1: maybe even weeks, on the novella, oftentimes coming downstairs from
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  Speaker 1: his bedroom to read portions aloud to his wife and stepson.
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  Speaker 1: Stevenson called it his greatest work yet, and while the
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  Speaker 1: main story may have begun in a dream, he'd almost
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  Speaker 1: certainly pulled details from his real life. Some of those
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  Speaker 1: details were in the news wealthy cabinet maker Deacon William
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  Speaker 1: Brody had been caught and convicted from multiple charges of theft.
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  Speaker 1: He had led a secret double life involving hidden rooms
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  Speaker 1: and a costume for his nocturnal crime spree, and it
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  Speaker 1: was certainly an inspiring tale. But other details came to
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  Speaker 1: Stevenson from people he was close to. One of his friends,
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  Speaker 1: a French teacher named Eugene Chantrelle, had been accused of
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  Speaker 1: poisoning his wife. Stevenson sat in the gallery during the trial.
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  Speaker 1: He recalled the looks of horror and disgust on his
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  Speaker 1: friend's face as the prosecution and went through the details
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  Speaker 1: of the murder as though it had been committed by
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  Speaker 1: someone else entirely. The jury, though i didn't agree and
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  Speaker 1: Eugene was executed a short while later. Stevenson used this
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  Speaker 1: courtroom experience as inspiration for the story, and after the
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  Speaker 1: novella's completion, he did what he always did with his
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  Speaker 1: first draft. He gave it to his wife, Fanny. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: we wouldn't have Robert Louis Stevenson at all if it
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  Speaker 1: wasn't for her. Bannie's opinion was of the utmost importance
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  Speaker 1: to him. She knew what made for a good story,
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  Speaker 1: and often wrote her comments in the margins of the
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  Speaker 1: pages for her husband's benefit. You might call her his
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  Speaker 1: number one editor. You might also call her his greatest critic.
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  Speaker 1: On this occasion, Bannie's criticisms were not exactly constructive. She
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  Speaker 1: referred to her husband's seminal work, a story that has
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  Speaker 1: been adapted for the stage and screen over one times
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  Speaker 1: since its publication, as acquire full of utter nonsense. She
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  Speaker 1: knew it could be better, but her husband needed a
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  Speaker 1: bit of motivation. In a letter she wrote to a
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  Speaker 1: friend shortly after she'd read the draft, Banny said she'd
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  Speaker 1: planned on burning it before it ever reached reader's hands,
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  Speaker 1: but she never got the chance. Robert read through his
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  Speaker 1: wife's marginal notes, and, in a fit of rage over
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  Speaker 1: his wasted time and effort, tossed the pile of pages
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  Speaker 1: into the fireplace himself, watching the flames reduce it all
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  Speaker 1: to ashes. Upon realizing what he'd done, he spent the
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  Speaker 1: next three days feverishly rewriting the draft while sitting up
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  Speaker 1: in bed. According to some biographers, Robert had been sick
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  Speaker 1: for weeks and was hopped up on cocaine. The entire
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  Speaker 1: time he wrote it, adding a bit of real life
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  Speaker 1: inspiration to Dr Jekyl's ingestion of a serum to become
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  Speaker 1: a completely different person. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyl
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  Speaker 1: and Mr Hyde became a great success almost immediately. It
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  Speaker 1: made Robert Louis Stevenson a household name. But we might
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  Speaker 1: not be teaching it in classrooms today if it wasn't
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  Speaker 1: for his wife, who saw its potential even at its worst.
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  Speaker 1: She said as much in that letter written to a Mr.
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  Speaker 1: William Henley. Henley was a poet and editor in his
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  Speaker 1: own right, but also a longtime friend to both Fannie
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  Speaker 1: and Robert, and for good reason. Robert saw something in him,
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  Speaker 1: a cleverness and a joy that warmed everyone around him.
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  Speaker 1: But he also saw something else, well, not exactly according
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  Speaker 1: to him, there was something about William Henley that wasn't visible,
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  Speaker 1: that was inspiring. Years before he had completed that rewrite
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  Speaker 1: of Dr Jekyl's Tale of Transformation, Robert Louis Stevenson had
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  Speaker 1: worked on another story. It was a novel that needed
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  Speaker 1: an antagonist. Now. Henley wasn't a mean guy. Everyone who
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  Speaker 1: knew him thought only the best of him, and his
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  Speaker 1: jovial nature, but Henley had suffered from tuberculosis at the
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  Speaker 1: age of twelve. The complications from the disease had cost
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  Speaker 1: him dearly, and doctors had amputated his left leg below
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  Speaker 1: the knee. And that was the key detail. Robert borrowed,
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  Speaker 1: just as he had done so many times before, for
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  Speaker 1: one of the most famous villains in all of English literature,
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  Speaker 1: the legendary pirate himself long John Silver. I hope you've
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  Speaker 1: enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe
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  Speaker 1: for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the
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  Speaker 1: show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was
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  Speaker 1: created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works.
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  Speaker 1: I make another award winning show called Lore, which is
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  Speaker 1: a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can
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  Speaker 1: learn all about it over at the World of Lore
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  Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.