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Roads of Destiny

O. Henry

First published 1936
Type Short Fiction
Length Novelette

A young man who is an enthusiastic writer of poetry states that he can forge his own destiny; when he quarrels with his girlfriend and leaves home, the omniscient author decides to test this theory by following three paths he could take from there. Will they diverge, or will they converge on a fated end?

First published in Ainslee's, April 1903.

Date Publication Publisher Type Page
1936 Cover The Mammoth Book of Thrillers, Ghosts and Mysteries Odhams Press Anthology 254
1939 The Story Survey J. B. Lippincott Anthology 131
May 1943 The Moonlight Traveler: Great Tales of Fantasy and Imagination Doubleday, Doran Anthology 423
May 1943 The Moonlight Traveler: Great Tales of Fantasy and Imagination McClelland Anthology 423
1945 Cover The Moonlight Traveler: Great Tales of Fantasy and Imagination Garden City Publishing Co. Anthology 431
1949 The Moonlight Traveller The Bodley Head Anthology 423
1950 A Book of Queer Stories University of London Press Anthology 71
August 1951 Cover World of Wonder Twayne Publishers Anthology 45
October 1951 Cover World of Wonder Twayne Publishers Anthology 45
1952 The Moonlight Traveller The Bodley Head Anthology 423
September 1954 Cover Great Tales of Fantasy and Imagination Cardinal / Pocket Books Anthology 431
September 1954 Cover Great Tales of Fantasy and Imagination Cardinal / Pocket Books Anthology 431
1956 Cover The Best of O. Henry: One Hundred of His Stories Chosen by Sapper Hodder & Stoughton Collection 781
November 1960 Cover The Moonlight Traveller World / WDL Books Anthology 194
July 1965 Cover Great Tales of Fantasy and Imagination Washington Square Press Anthology 431
1969 Tales of O. Henry Doubleday Collection
1974 Cover Fantasy: The Literature of the Marvelous McGraw-Hill Anthology 52
April 1979 Cover Tales of O. Henry International Collectors Library Collection 157
1991 Cover Great Tales of the Supernatural Chancellor Press Anthology 236
1994 Cover Mysteries: A Classic Collection Bracken Books Anthology
2002 Cover Great Ghost Stories Chancellor Press Anthology 236
November 2023 Cover Roads of Destiny and Other Tales of Alternate Histories and Parallel Realms The British Library Anthology 89