Read more
About the author
O Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter, born in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1862. He held various jobs, including a stint as a teller in an Austin bank, but in 1894 he was charged with embezzlement. O. Henry fled to Honduras, but returned three years later to be with his dying wife at which point he was convicted. He served three years in the Ohio State Penitentiary, where he began to write the stories that made him famous. After his release, Porter moved to New York and remarried, but kept his criminal past secret as his literary career blossomed. He died in 1910, having written over 600 stories. After his death, the O. Henry Award was established in recognition of his outstanding contribution to short fiction.
Summary
Step into the boarding houses and furnished rooms of New York City, or take a stroll around the park. Observe the tumult and glitter of Broadway on a Saturday night, and browse the silken stockings in Manhattan's most exclusive store. Hop onto the Coney Island ferry to join the lovesick shop-girl, the drunken down-and-out and the secret millionaire in the city's dance of folly and pleasure.
Bringing to life the glamour and squalor of the 1900s, O. Henry's unmistakable tales are by turns hilarious or tragic, but always deeply poignant.
Foreword
'He wrote so many good stories it's hard to choose.' John Steinbeck
