SOURCE: A review of Half Portions, in The New York Times Book Review, May 9, 1920, p. 236.

In the following favorable review of Half Portions, the critic notes that Ferber's characters are similar to those of O'Henry.

There are times while reading Edna Ferber's stories that one thinks of O. Henry. It is not the O. Henry plot with its surprising conclusion, its snap at the end, but the O. Henry characterizations that come to mind. Miss Ferber picks her people from among the everyday persons, the man in the street, the shop girl, the farmer who is strangely out his element in the city, just the types that O. Henry found ready-made to his hand around practically every corner in New York. Half Portions, Miss Ferber's latest collection of short stories, emphasizes the impression she has already made. It is a book that is thoroughly enjoyable and laughable from...