I'm Afraid to Come Home in the Dark

Dominic Vautier
11/2006
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O. Henry, (William Sydney Porter), was a writer who spent two years in the slammer for embezzlement.  He began writing short stories while in prison, and although his stories were phenomenally successful, still the two-year stint in jail played havoc on the older man’s health.

After Porter did his time he went back to New York to continue his new promising career in writing, but it was to be short lived because by 1910 he was at death’s door.  The man lay in a deep coma in his darkened room at the Caledonia Hotel in Manhattan.  One afternoon he suddenly awoke from his coma to the sound of a hurdy-gurdy outside his window playing a popular song of the day, I’m Afraid to Come Home in the Dark.  The nurse rushed to Porter’s bedside to hear his dying words, “Pull up the curtain, I’m afraid to come home in the dark”.  This incident spread throughout New York and the song became all the more popular.

1905 and 1906 were good years for the dynamic team of Harry Williams and Egburt Van Alstyne.  They put together several songs that year, songs such as In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree, Cheyenne, Won’t You Come Over to My House, Why Don’t You Try, and, of course, I’m Afraid to Come Home in the Dark.  This last song was not the most successful but it was remembered largely because of the distinctive honor placed upon it by the late, great O. Henry.