The most popular short story writer of his era, William Sydney Porter was born on Polecat Creek in Guilford County, and raised and educated in Greensboro by an unmarried aunt who ran a private school. Young William Sydney Porter worked in an uncle's drug store until he moved at nineteen to Texas where he held a variety of jobs including paying and receiving teller at the First National Bank of Austin. To supplement his income, he wrote free-lance sketches, and was briefly editor and co-owner of a humorous weekly called The Rolling Stone. While he was working as a columnist for the Houston Daily Post, Porter was indicted for the embezzlement of bank funds during his time as a teller. His trial was delayed for two years first by his escape to New Orleans and Honduras, then by his wife's illness and death.

Although it is not known for certain whether Porter was an embezzler or merely an incompetent bookkeeper, he was sentenced to five years in the Ohio Penitentiary. His jobs as the prison's night druggist and as secretary to the steward allowed him time to write, and he published his first short story from prison under a pen name. He used several pseudonyms, but upon his early release for good behavior, he chose to write as O. Henry.

Porter moved to New York City in 1902, ostensibly to obtain material, although for the next few years his work continued to reflect his experiences in the southwest and Central America. All but 16 of the 115 stories he wrote in 1904 and 1905 dealt with New York, and on the publication of his second book, The Four Million, he was declared the discoverer of romance in that city's streets. Until 1911 (one year after his death), two collections of his stories were published annually, many of them appearing first in the New York Sunday World. In 1907, Porter married his childhood sweetheart, Sarah Lindsay Coleman of Weaverville, North Carolina. He died in 1910, and is buried in Asheville.

William Sydney Porter's stories follow a standard formula, dealing with commonplace events in the lives of ordinary people and arriving at a surprise ending through coincidence. His two favorite themes were the situation of the imposter and fate as the one unavoidable reality of life. Some of his best known tales are "The Gift of the Magi," "A Municipal Report," and "The Ransom of Red Chief." Stories which hark back to his North Carolina background include "Let Me Feel Your Pulse" and "The Fool-Killer." Although his stories have been criticized for sentimentality and for their surprise endings, they remain popular to this day for those very reasons, and because of their author's unmistakable affection for the foibles of human nature.

Excerpt from The Gift of the Magi
from The Four Million
McClure, Phillips & Company, 1906

Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. Had the Queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasure piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled at his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy. So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her, rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the wool red carpet. On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out the door and down the stairs to the street. Where she stopped the sign read: "Mme. Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds." One flight up Delia ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame, large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the "Sofronie." "Will you buy my hair?" asked Della. "I buy hair," said Madame. "Take yer hat off and let's have sight at the looks of it. Down rippled the brown cascade. "Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the mass with a practiced hand. "Give it to me quick," said Della. Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim's present. Introductory note by the author to The Four Million in which this story appears. Not very long ago some one invented the assertion that there were only "Four Hundred" people in New York City who were really worth noticing. But a wiser man has arisen—the census taker—and his larger estimate of human interest has been preferred in marking out the field of these little stories of the "Four Million."

After Twenty Years & Other Stories. Edited by Masat C. Nakauchi. Tokyo: Kenkyusha, 1957.

The Best of O. Henry. London: Hodder & Stroughton, 1929.

The Best of O. Henry. Philadelphia: Running Press, 1978.

The Best Short Stories of O. Henry. Garden City, N.Y.: Sun Dial Press, 1945.

Cabbages and Kings. New York: McClure, Phillips & Co., 1904.

The Complete Works of O. Henry. Garden City, N.Y.: Garden City Publishing Co., 1911.

Complete Writings of O. Henry. Garden City, N.Y.: Garden City Publishing Co., 1917.

The Four Million. New York: McClure, Phillips & Co., 1906.

The Gentle Grafter. New York: McClure, 1908.

The Gift of the Magi. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1922.

The Gift of the Wise Men. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1911.

Heart of the West. New York: McClure, 1907.

Let Me Feel Your Pulse. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1910.

Letters to Lithopolis. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1922.

O. Henry Encore. Ed. by Mary S. Harrell. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1939.

O. Henryana. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1920.

O. Henry's New York. Ed. by J. Donald Adams. Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett, 1962.

Options. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1909.

Postscripts. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1923.

The Ransom of Red Chief, and Other O. Henry Stories for Boys. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1918.

Roads of Destiny. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1909.

Rolling Stones. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1912.

Selected Stories from O. Henry. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1922.

Sixes and Sevens. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1911.

Strictly Business. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1910.

Tales of O. Henry. Garden City, N.Y.: International Collectors Library, 1969.

The Trimmed Lamp, and Other Stories. New York: McClure, Phillips & Co., 1907.

The Voice of the City. New York: McClure, 1908.

Waifs and Strays, Twelve Stories. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1917.

Whirligigs. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1910.

The Works of O. Henry. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1911.

Porter's periodical appearances include American, Century, Cosmopolitan, Critic, Everybody's, Golden Book, Hampton, Independent, McClure's, and Redbook.

Additional information on Porter can be found in:

Arnett, Ethel S. O. Henry from Polecat Creek. Greensboro, N.C.: Piedmont Press, 1962.

Clarkson, Paul S. A Bibliography of William Sydney Porter. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, 1938.

Current-Garcia, Eugene. O. Henry: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne, 1993.

—. O. Henry (William Sydney Porter). New York: Twayne, 1965.

Harris, Richard C. William Sydney Porter (O. Henry): A Reference Guide. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1980.

Kramer, Dale. The Heart of O. Henry. New York: Rinehart, 1954.

Langford, Gerald. Alias O. Henry: A Biography. New York, Macmillan, 1957.

Long, Eugene H. O. Henry, the Man and His Work. Philadelphia: U. of Pennsylvania Press, 1949.

Nolan, Jeanette. O. Henry: The Story of William Sydney Porter. New York: J. Messner, 1943.

O'Connor, Richard. O. Henry: The Legendary Life of William S. Porter. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1970.

O'Quinn, Trueman E. Time to Write: How William Sidney Porter Became O. Henry.

Austin, Texas: Eakin Press, 1986.

Pike, Cathleen. O. Henry in North Carolina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Library, 1957.

Stuart, David. O. Henry: A Biography. Chelsea, Michigan: Scarborough House, 1990.

Williams, William W. The Quiet Lodger of Irving Place. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1936.

Wilson, Lollie C. Hard to Forget: The Young O. Henry. Los Angeles: Lymanhouse, 1939.

Links to further information:

1999 O. Henry Awards

2000 O. Henry Festival in Greensboro

O. Henry Bio Plus Other Links

O. Henry Museum in Austin, Texas

O. Henry in Honduras

The Ransom of Red Chief