Greatest write in history,O.Henry is an name that all story lovers will know.
He has written some of the most notable short stories of all time.
O. Henry (1862-1910) was originally born as William Sydney Porter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
As a young man, Porter had moved to Austin, Texas where he had worked as a bank teller. He again moved to Houston, Texas in the year 1895 andthere he became a newspaper columnist.
In 1896, however, he was again called back to Austin, where he was charged with the accusation of embezzling money from the bank where he had previously worked. Not wanting to go to prison for his crime, O. Henry fled to Honduras, and stayed there for six months before returning to the United States.
Upon his return, the court approached him and put him in an Ohio prison for three years. While in prison, he began writing short stories and it is there that he took the pen-name O. Henry for his writings.
After his release from prison in 1901, he moved to New York, which is the setting for many of his stories. He is the author of over 250 stories and is most famous for his use of surprise or ‘twist’ endings. Notice the twists and surprises in the endings to “The Last Leaf”, “The Green Door”, and perhaps his most famous story, “The Gift of the Magi”.
