O. Henry - (1862-1910)
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Village Community School, New York City
Read other essays on O. Henry by New York student Daniel Golden or North Carolina students Chris L. and Justin L., and Bobby Helbert.
I. Biography O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. After his mother died of pneumonia he, his father and brothers moved to live with his grandmother who
raised the children and undertook their education. For extra money O. Henry worked as a pharmacist at his uncle's drugstore. In 1881 O. Henry got his pharmacist's license. O.
Henry moved to Texas shortly after in fear of getting pneumonia from which his mother died. He felt that the dry climate would be healthier.
Once in Texas O.Henry got married and became a bank teller. In 1884 he bought a comic magazine and changed it into a short story magazine called The Rolling Stone. The
magazine failed after one year. Soon after, O. Henry was charged with embezzlement at the bank where he was working, due to shortages in his accounts. He fled to Honduras but
returned a little while after because his wife was very ill. He came home to be with her while she died. Later he received five years in the federal penitentiary in Ohio. O. Henry worked
night shifts at the jail pharmacy and started to send in short stories to magazines. When out of jail O. Henry moved to New York City to start writing full- time. He lived in
many hotels including the Chelsea Hotel, the Marty and the Caledonia. He was said to live in hotels for inspiration. The people gave him ideas for stories, which were mainly about
life in the city. In 1910, O. Henry was found dead in the Caledonia Hotel with many empty liquor bottles stashed under his bed and he was only 47 years old at the time.
There are many things that O. Henry tried to keep a secret while he was alive, such as his health problems. He had diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver and was a heavy drinker. Also,
while William Sydney Porter was in jail he changed his pen name several times before settling on O. Henry. That was probably so that nobody would know that he had been in
jail. But his past history never stopped him from writing some of the greatest short stories of all times, remembered for their suspense and unusual twists. II. Professional Life
O. Henry is one of the most popular and widely known American short story writers of the twentieth century. He is best known for his typically brief stories, conversational
openings, plots hinging on improbable coincidence, and variations on the surprise ending. Although by profession O. Henry was a pharmacist and bank teller, he began writing even
as he held these jobs. His first major writing project was buying the magazine The Rolling Stone. Even when he was in jail, he continued writing and submitting stories to various
magazines. He used his experiences and the people he met living in the Southwest, Central America, and in prison for his inspiration. After he got out of jail and moved to New York City he started writing for
Ainslee's Magazine. He began publishing stories in many periodicals under variations of his own name. He quickly gained fame and under the name O. Henry. He then signed a contract with
The New York Sunday World and wrote weekly short stories. Writing for the World, which had a large circulation, he increased his popularity. Many other magazines were very interested in publishing his works.
O. Henry would love to sit in restaurants and bars for hours and just watch the people. He would observe their situations and then write various fictional stories about them. He
would also give out money to panhandlers and prostitutes, explaining that they gave him ideas for stories. The year of 1904 was the busiest and most productive year of O. Henry's writing life. An editor from
McClure's Magazine suggested that he assemble all of his short stories into a book. That was what he did and the book was named Cabbages and Kings. Two years
later he collected another group of stories under the name The Four Million. O. Henry's fame rests upon the types of short stories he wrote rather than one specific
story, although "The Gift of the Magi" remains his most famous. A biographer and critic named Eugene Current-Garcia described O. Henry's stories as having "…unmistakable
characteristics: the chatty, shortcut opening; the catchy, piquant descriptive phrasing; the confidential, reminiscent narrator; the chance of the surprise ending" (4).
O. Henry's stories are often divided into five groups according to their setting: the American South ("The Third Ingredient"), the West ("The Moment of Victory"), Central America, prison, and New York City ("Gift of the Magi").
The most well-known stories written by O. Henry often took place in New York City. O. Henry wrote a total of one-hundred and forty stories about the early twentieth-century city
life. His complete works comprise two hundred and seventy-seven stories. O. Henry's stories were written with inspiration from the people around him. It was the
common people who intrigued him the most and gave him the success for his stories. After O. Henry's death his work was criticized by some. A book critic, Katharine Fulerton
Gerould, believed his stories to be, "Pernicious…[while] other critics noted how quickly O. Henry stories seemed to date, and his trademark surprise endings were called overly
sentimental and predictable" (4). Most people still believe his stories to be interesting and enjoyable to read. O. Henry deeply influenced much of the short story writing for half of the twentieth century.
III. O. Henry's Famous Works Individual Stories The Four Million (1906) Collections of Stories Letters to Lithopolis (1922) IV. Bibliography
Corbett, William. New York Literary Lights. Saint Paul, Minnesota: Graywolf, 1998. "Henry, O." Encyclopedia Britannica. 1974 ed. O. Henry. 100 Selected Stories.
Great Britain: Mackays of Chatham, 1995. "O. Henry." World Literature Criticism. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992. This essay was submitted by 8th grade students of Joan Brodsky Schur, a teacher at the
Village Community School in New York City.
The Gift of the Magi
The Trimmed Lamp (1907)
The Last Leaf (1907)
The Voice of the City (1908)
The Gentle Grafter (1908)
Roads of Destiny (1909)
Options (1909)
Alias Jimmy Valentine (1909)
Strictly Business (1910)
Whirligigs (1910)
The Ransom of the Red Chief
Sixies and Sevens (1911)
Rolling Stones (1912)
Waifs and Strays (1917)
O. Henryana (1920)
Houston Post, Postscripts (1923)
O. Henry Encore (1939)
Cabbages and Kings (1904)