O. Henry at Work
Autograph Manuscript, a fragment from the short story “Calloway’s Code”.
Price: $4,000.00
About the item
One page on wove paper, 21 lines in pencil, headed with [page] number 7. 4to. Two chips, affecting a word or two, bottom of page uneven. Good plus.
Item #374885
A page from a working draft of Calloway’s Code (varying slightly from the published text, which first appeared in Munsey’s Magazine, September 1906, and was collected in Whirligigs):
"Great! said Boyd. ^It's an anagram. “My first is a Russian general. Go ahead, Scott.”
“No, that won't work,” said the city editor. "It’s undoubtedly a code. It's impossible to read it without the Key. Has the office ever used a cipher code?”
“Just what I was asking,” said the m. e. “Hustle everybody up that ought to know. The message must be read in some way. [Struck out: Something important big has happened to] Calloway has got hold of something big, & the censors have put the screws on, or he wouldn't have [struck out: sent] cabled in a lot of chop suey like [this]."
[Struck out: The oldest brightest, wisest, The] Throughout the office of the Enterprise a dragnet was sent, hauling in such members of the staff as would be likely to know of a code, past or present, by reason of their wisdom, information, natural intelligence, or length of servitude. They came …
Autograph material by O. Henry is uncommon.
