In today’s Wall Street Journal, I have an article on the short-story writer O. Henry. Many Americans remember him fondly for “The Gift of the Magi,” the famous Christmas tale.

A point I didn’t have a chance to make in the article is that although a lot of what O. Henry wrote was deadline-driven and forgettable, professors and critics often dismiss him for a different reason: He wasn’t sufficiently political. If he had written more stories in the first part of the 20th century that called for a socialist revolution in the United States–think Jack London or Upton Sinclair–he probably would have stayed more in fashion over the years. His typical characters are ordinary proles like Della and Jim in “Magi,” but he refused to turn them into ideological pawns. His literature is refreshingly free of political messages.

On my website, I describe the little-known connection between O. Henry and Vicks VapoRub (a capitalist success story).