The Trimmed Lamp (1907) is a collection of twenty-five short stories
by American writer O. Henry. Inspired by his experiences as a fugitive
and prisoner, these stories address themes of poverty and city life with
humor and abundant empathy. Its focus on the regular, working class
people of New York City makes The Trimmed Lamp a sequel of sorts to
Henry's The Four Million (1906), perhaps his most important
collection. In "The Trimmed Lamp," two friends discuss work, love, and
money while standing on a city street-corner. They both came to New York
in search of work, and though Nancy enjoys her low paying job as a shop
girl at a department store, Lou brags about her employment as an ironer
at a laundry and encourages her friend to look for something else to do.
While they wait for Lou's boyfriend Dan, Lou asks Nancy about the
wealthy men who frequent her store, and secretly wonders what it would
be like to marry into money. "The Last Leaf" is a story of two artists
living in Greenwich Village. While Sue lies bedridden from pneumonia,
each day growing closer to death, she watches from her window a vine
across the street. As fall turns to winter, its leaves drop one by one,
until nothing remains but one last leaf. In another apartment, an old
artist named Behrman watches the vine as well, painting the leaf with a
renewed sense of purpose and a lifetime of skill and precision. With a
beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this
edition of O. Henry's The Trimmed Lamp is a classic of American
literature reimagined for modern readers.