Porter was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the son of Albert de Lance Porter, who was first a printer in Boston, and then a publisher in New York City as owner of the A. D. Porter Co. His mother, Louella née Root, was born in Ohio and raised in Massachusetts. , Harvard University He attended Harvard College winning a scholarship in the year 1906-7. He was on the lacrosse team in 1906-1907. Porter was the editor of the Harvard Lampoon from 1906 to 1909 and an editor of the Harvard Advocate, the campus literary magazine, from 1907 to 1909. He shared Room 13 in Holworthy Hall, the freshman's dormitory, with John Mansfield Groton, next door to Robert Middlemass and the artist Julian Ellsworth Garnsey in Room 14. After graduating in 1909 he worked at the Boston publisher Little, Brown & Co., and then with his father's firm at the A.D. Porter Company. The firm published a monthly magazine, The Housewife, which he edited. His first short story under the pseudonym Holworthy Hall was printed in The Saturday Evening Post, and he continued to write short stories for the rest of his life. In 1916, he was named the president of the A. D. Porter Company. His short story "The Same Old Christmas Story" appeared in the 1,000th edition of the Harvard Advocate in May 1916. He was characterised in a review in the rival Harvard Crimson as a "noble graduate of 1907, with a bank account, a tender heart and too much leisure." During World War I he served in the office of the Secretary of War in Washington, D.C., working in the Military Intelligence Division, as a first lieutenant and then captain. He continued to publish stories, and was demobilized as a major in the Officer Reserve Corps. His two non-fiction books date from this period. He joined the Skaneateles Country Club in 1920. He moved to France to escape the US, living in Paris and Cannes, in a house overlooking the Mediterranean. Playing golf was a particular passion, and he wrote less and less. His marriage ended in divorce, and he returned to the US alone to live in Connecticut. He continued to write stories and died in Torrington of pneumonia, aged 48.
, published in The Smart Set: A Magazine of Cleverness. Vol. 42, No. 3, pp. 91–96. Also given away as miniature book in packs of Sovereign cigarettes. The Smart Set was edited by H. L. Mencken from 1914 to 1923.
, collection of college stories
, more college tales
;Novels
. A satire of prohibition. Filmed in 1920 as The Six Best Cellars by Famous Players Lasky.
, with a dedication to his friend and literary agent, Harold Ober
;Plays
The Valiant a one-act play, appeared in McClure's magazine
Porter was evidently a great lover of classical music, and the following lines evoke memories of his favourite operas, singers and musicians.
Namesake
Harold Everett Porter should not perhaps be confused with H. E. Porter, a Yukon territory prospector who discovered the biggest deposit in the Whitehorse Copper Belt, as well as the Division Coal mine. A photo of him exists, taken during the Second Riel Rebellion of 1885, where a relative of his Andrew Everett Porter was a doctor.
