William Sydney Porter Biography

The American short story writer, William Sydney Porter is most famous for his pen name O. Henry. He was born on 11th September 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina. In the year 1882, he moved to Texas, where he met the love of his life, his wife - Athol Estes. He had two children with Athol. Porter moved to New York in the year 1902, after the death of his wife, where he soon remarried. Porter's most intensive writing period occurred when he was in New York, with Porter writing 381 short stories.

The stories of Porter are most famous for its clever word play, witty narration and their surprise endings. It changes the audience's perception of the preceding events and sometimes introduces a new conflict that places it in a different context. Some of his famous works include “The Gift of Magi”, “The Ransom of Red Chief”, “The Cop and the Anthem” and many more. His story The Gift of Magi often ironically used coincidences and surprise endings. Writing enormously, he went on to become a glorified American writer. He also wrote poetry and non - fiction. 

William Sydney Porter Biography: At a Glance

William Sydney Porter Biography: Early Life

William Sydney Porter was born in Greensboro, North Carolina on 11th September 1862 during the American Civil War. In the year 1898, he changed his middle name from “Sidney” to “Sydney”. His father, Algernon Sidney Porter was a physician and his mother was Mary Jane Virginia Swaim Porter. William’s mother died after giving birth to her third child. He was 3 years old then. After that, he and his father moved into the home of his paternal grandmother. He attended school till 15 years of age where his aunt used to teach. After that, in the year 1979, he worked in his uncle’s drugstore. He got his license as a pharmacist at the age of 19 on August 30, 1881.  

In the year 1882, at the age of 20, he went to Texas. He worked there on a ranch, in a general land office. He learnt Spanish and German while working there. Later, he worked as a teller in the First National Bank in Austin. He had an active social life there in Austin. He was very popular there for his musical and story-telling skills and also for his wit. He used to play mandolin and guitar there. He met Athol Estes in Austin and they eloped on July 1, 1887 to get married. They married the same day in the parlor of the home of the pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church, Reverend R. K. Smoot. 

After the First National Bank of Austin, Porter worked in The Rolling Stone, a humorous weekly. It featured satire on life, people, and politics and included Porter's short stories and sketches. The paper failed in April 1895. But the work of Porter in the paper had caught the attention of the editor of the Houston Post. He moved to Houston in 1895 along with his family and started writing for the Houston Post. In February 1896, he was arrested on the charge of  embezzlement of bank funds. His father in law posted for his bail but he got scared and fled first to New Orleans and then to Honduras. 

William Sydney Porter stayed in Honduras but when he came to know about his wife’s illness, he returned back to Austin in February 1897 and surrendered to court. On July 25, 1897, his wife Athol Estes died from tuberculosis. Porter was found guilty on February 17, 1898, of embezzling $854.08. On March 25, 1898, he was sentenced to five years in prison and imprisoned at the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio. He worked in the prison hospital as the night druggist. Because of his good behaviour, his sentence of five years was shortened to three years and three months. 

While he was working in the prison hospital, he used to write to earn money for support of his daughter Margaret. At that time, he published 14 stories under various pseudonyms but was best known as “O.Henry”. His stories of adventure were very popular with magazine readers in the southwest U.S. and Central America. He was released from prison on July 24, 1901. 

William Sydney Porter Biography: Later Life and Death

William Sydney Porter’s writing career was at its peak in the year 1902, when he moved to New York City to be near his publishers. He wrote 381 short stories there. In 1907, he married again to childhood sweetheart Sarah (Sallie) Lindsey Coleman. Three years later, on 5th June, 1910, Porter died of cirrhosis of the liver, complications of diabetes, and an enlarged heart.

William Sydney Porter Biography: Stories

William Sydney Porter followed a standard style for his writings. He dealt with commonplace events in the lives of ordinary people and he always arrived at surprise endings through coincidences. The situation of the imposter and fate as the one unavoidable reality of life are the two themes that appear in most of the stories of O. Henry. The famous stories written by William Sydney Porter are:

• The Gift of Magi - This is the story of a young couple, Jim and Della. They run short of money but want to buy christmas presents for each other. It's the story of their love and the way they find out to buy gifts for each other.

• The Ransom of Red Chief - In this story, two men kidnap a boy of ten years old. This boy turns out to be so rogue that the kidnappers pay $250 to the boy's father to take him back.

• The Duplicity of Hargraves - This is the story of a father and daughter from the Old South who move to Washington, DC. They are new poors after the Civil War. 

• The Caballero's Way - In this story, Porter introduced his most famous character - the Cisco Kid. It was published in the 1907 July issue of Everybody's Magazine and collected in the book Heart of the West. 

• The Cop and the Anthem - This is the story of a New York City hobo named Soapy. He sets out to get arrested so that he can be a guest of the city jail instead of sleeping out in the cold winter. But, in spite of many tries, he fails to draw the attention of the police. 

William Sydney Porter Biography: Legacy

In his name, the O. Henry Award is given to the short stories of exceptional merit. In 1952, a film was made featuring five stories of William Sydney Porter and it was called O. Henry's Full House. The five stories are: The Cop and the Anthem, The Clarion Call, The Last Leaf, The Ransom of Red Chief and The Gift of the Magi. In the year 1986, Indian anthology television series Katha Sagar adapted several of Henry's short stories as their episodes. 

In Austin, Texas, O. Henry House and O. Henry Hall is named after him. There are elementary schools named for him in Greensboro, North Carolina - William Sydney Porter Elementary and Garland, Texas - O. Henry Elementary, as well as a middle school in Austin, Texas - O. Henry Middle School. The O. Henry Hotel in Greensboro is also named after Willam Porter. The United States Postal Service issued a stamp commemorating the 150th anniversary of O. Henry's birth on September 11, 2012.