William
Sydney Porter (“O. Henry”)
O.
Henry, pseudonym of William Sydney
Porter (b. Sept. 11, 1862, Greensboro,
N.C., U.S.—d. June 5, 1910, New York,
N.Y.), American short-story writer whose
tales romanticized the commonplace—in
particular the life of ordinary people
in New York City. His stories expressed
the effect of coincidence on character
through humour, grim or ironic, and
often had surprise endings, a device
that became identified with his name and
cost him critical favour when its vogue
had passed.
Porter
attended a school taught by his aunt,
then clerked in his uncle’s drugstore.
In 1882 he went to Texas, where he
worked on a ranch, in a general land
office, and later as teller in the First
National Bank in Austin. He began
writing sketches at about the time of
his marriage to Athol Estes in 1887, and
in 1894 he started a humorous weekly,
The Rolling Stone. When that venture
failed, Porter joined the Houston Post
as reporter, columnist, and occasional
cartoonist.
In
February 1896 he was indicted for
embezzlement of bank funds. Friends
aided his flight to Honduras. News of
his wife’s fatal illness, however, took
him back to Austin, and lenient
authorities did not press his case until
after her death. When convicted, Porter
received the lightest sentence possible,
and in 1898 he entered the penitentiary
at Columbus, Ohio; his sentence was
shortened to three years and three
months for good behaviour. As night
druggist in the prison hospital, he
could write to earn money for support of
his daughter Margaret. His stories of
adventure in the southwest U.S. and
Central America were immediately popular
with magazine readers, and when he
emerged from prison W.S. Porter had
become O. Henry.
In 1902
O. Henry arrived in New York—his “Bagdad
on the Subway.” From December 1903 to
January 1906 he produced a story a week
for the New York World, writing also for
magazines. His first book, Cabbages and
Kings (1904), depicted fantastic
characters against exotic Honduran
backgrounds. Both The Four Million
(1906) and The Trimmed Lamp (1907)
explored the lives of the multitude of
New York in their daily routines and
searchings for romance and adventure.
Heart of the West (1907) presented
accurate and fascinating tales of the
Texas range.
Then in
rapid succession came The Voice of the
City (1908), The Gentle Grafter (1908),
Roads of Destiny (1909), Options (1909),
Strictly Business (1910), and Whirligigs
(1910). Whirligigs contains perhaps
Porter’s funniest story, “The Ransom of
Red Chief.”
Despite
his popularity, O. Henry’s final years
were marred by ill health, a desperate
financial struggle, and alcoholism. A
second marriage in 1907 was unhappy.
After his death three more collected
volumes appeared: Sixes and Sevens
(1911), Rolling Stones (1912), and Waifs
and Strays (1917). Later seven fugitive
stories and poems, O. Henryana (1920),
Letters to Lithopolis (1922), and two
collections of his early work on the
Houston Post, Postscripts (1923) and O.
Henry Encore (1939), were published.
Foreign translations and adaptations for
other art forms, including films and
television, attest his universal
application and appeal.
