O. Genri

O. Henry (real name William Sydney Porter) was an outstanding American writer and prose author, known for his popular short stories characterized by subtle humor and unexpected endings.

He was born on September 11, 1862, in Greensboro, North Carolina, to Dr. Algernon Sidney Porter and Mary Jane Virginia Swaim Porter. At the age of three, he lost his mother, who died of tuberculosis. Later, he came under the care of his paternal aunt. After school he studied pharmacy and worked in his uncle’s pharmacy. Three years later he moved to Texas, where he tried various occupations—he worked on a ranch and served in the land office. He then worked as a cashier and bookkeeper in a bank in the Texas city of Austin.

His first literary efforts date from the early 1880s. In 1894 Porter began publishing the humorous weekly Rolling Stone in Austin, filling it almost entirely with his own essays, jokes, poems, and drawings. A year later the magazine closed, and at the same time Porter was dismissed from the bank and brought to trial in connection with a shortage, although it was reimbursed by his relatives.

After being accused of embezzlement, he spent six months hiding from the authorities in Honduras and then in South America. Upon returning to the United States, he was convicted and sent to the Columbus prison in Ohio, where he spent three years (1898–1901).

In prison Porter worked in the infirmary and wrote stories, while choosing a pseudonym for himself. In the end he settled on O. Henry (often incorrectly written in the Irish surname form, O’Henry). Its origin is not entirely clear. The writer himself claimed in an interview that the name Henry was taken from a society column in a newspaper, and the initial O. was chosen as the simplest letter. In one newspaper he said that O. stood for Olivier (the French form of Oliver), and indeed he published several stories there under the name Olivier Henry. According to other sources, it referred to the name of the famous French pharmacist Etienne Henry, whose medical handbook was popular at the time. Another hypothesis was put forward by the writer and scholar Guy Davenport: “O. Henry” is nothing more than an abbreviation of the name of the prison where the author was held—Ohio Penitentiary.