O. Henry

(September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910)  

       O. Henry, originally named William Sydney Porter, was an American writer of the early 20th century. In course of his distressful life, O. Henry wrote more than 300 short stories, and all of them were captivating, witty and with the endings always contrary to what readers expected. Thanks to those endings, yet not beyond reason,the writer combines realistic surroundings of contemporary society with romantic struggling of his soul. Being gifted with humor and having a good eye for details, he objectively shows us a true panorama of American life, which he puts together according to the stories of different members of motley society: clerks, policemen, waitresses, etc. In his stories, through the individuality of each character one can observe political crisis and various tensions of class and wealth in turn-of-the-century America.

       Among his most famous stories are: "The Gift of the Magi", "The Ransom of Red Chief", "The Cop and the Anthem", "A Retrieved Reformation", "The Duplicity of Hargraves" and others.

       O'Henry's style had a great influence on modern American fiction, therefore, some critics called him "the founder of American stories".

Pen Name

   Porter gave various explanations for the origin of his pen name. In 1909 he gave an interview to The New York Times, in which he gave an account of it:

   "It was during these New Orleans days that I adopted my pen name of O. Henry. I said to a friend: "I'm going to send out some stuff. I don't know if it amounts to much, so I want to get a literary alias. Help me pick out a good one." He suggested that we get a newspaper and pick a name from the first list of notables that we found in it. In the society columns we found the account of a fashionable ball. "Here we have our notables," said he. We looked down the list and my eye lighted on the name Henry, "That'll do for a last name," said I. "Now for a first name. I want something short. None of your three-syllable names for me." "Why don’t you use a plain initial letter, then?" asked my friend. "Good," said I, "O is about the easiest letter written, and O it is."

   A newspaper once wrote and asked him what the O stands for. He replied, "O stands for Olivier, the French for Oliver." And several of his stories accordingly appeared in that paper under the name Olivier Henry.