O. Henry
1862–1910
Biography
O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862–1910), an American short-story writer. He was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, and worked for a time in his uncle's pharmacy, becoming a licensed pharmacist before he was twenty. In 1882 he moved to Texas, where he worked as a draughtsman for the state land office and began shaping the characters who would people his stories. He later lived in New York, where he wrote several hundred short stories in the last years of his life, and he died there in 1910.
His life was marked by a scandal that shaped his later work. In 1895 he was charged with embezzlement connected with an audit of the Austin bank where he worked, and before his trial he fled to Honduras. The months he spent there gave him material for the novel Cabbages and Kings. He gave himself up when he learned that his wife was dying, and he served part of a five-year sentence in the Ohio Penitentiary, where he worked as a night druggist and began publishing stories under pen names, one of them O. Henry. He was released early for good behaviour.
After his release he moved to New York, where he gained fame for stories that combined close observation of ordinary people, witty narration and surprise endings. The Four Million, his 1906 collection of New York stories, is the book listed on this site, and it shows these strengths well. The O. Henry Award, given each year for outstanding short stories, keeps his name in use. His work is a good entry point to American short fiction of the early twentieth century, though readers should be ready for a sentimental streak beside the sharp wit.
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Books
The Four Million
by O. Henry
The Four Million is the second published collection of short stories by O. Henry originally released on April 10, 1906, by McClure, Phillips & Co. in New York. There are twenty-five stories of various lengths including several of his best known works such as "The Gift of the…
Summary from Wikipedia: The Four Million (CC BY-SA 4.0)