author
Sara Lindsay Coleman Porter
1868–1959
A little-known American writer remembered for a single unusual book, she turned private history into fiction while trying to show readers the man behind O. Henry. Her work carries a personal, reflective quality that makes it stand out from more conventional literary memoirs.
1 Audiobook
Wind of destiny
by Sara Lindsay Coleman Porter
About the author
Sara Lindsay Coleman Porter was an American author born in 1868 and died in 1959. She is chiefly known for Wind of Destiny (1916), a book published by Doubleday, Page & Company and now available through Project Gutenberg. In its prefatory note, she explained that the story used a fictional framework while drawing on real letters connected with William Sydney Porter, the writer better known as O. Henry.
She had known William Sydney Porter from childhood, and records from Greensboro collections show that he wrote to Sara Coleman before their marriage. They married in 1907, and later references to her life often identify her as O. Henry's widow.
Because so little of her writing survives in wide circulation, she remains a somewhat shadowy figure. What is clear is that her best-known book was shaped by memory, affection, and a wish to reveal something more intimate about a famous author than readers usually saw.