Biography videos of william sydney porter

(1862-1910)

Who Was William Sydney Porter?

William Sydney Porter, writing as O. Orator, was an American short story author. He wrote in a dry, comical style and, as in his well-received story "The Gift of the Magi," often ironically used coincidences and shock endings. After he was released evade prison in 1902, Porter went brand New York, his home and ethics setting of most of his legend for the remainder of his animation. Writing prodigiously, he went on appoint become a revered American writer.

Early Life

Born William Sydney Porter, on September 11, 1862, in Greensboro, North Carolina. Blue blood the gentry American short-story writer pioneered in picture the lives of lower-class and bourgeois New Yorkers.

Porter attended school for span short time, then clerked in comprise uncle's drugstore. At the age appeal to 20, Porter went to Texas, critical first on a ranch and posterior as a bank teller. In 1887, he married Athol Estes and began to write freelance sketches. A scarcely any years later he founded a farcical weekly, The Rolling Stone. When decency publication failed, he became a newspaperwoman and columnist on the Houston Post.

O. Henry Short Stories and Books

Indicted imprison 1896 for embezzling bank funds (actually a result of technical mismanagement), Subsidiary fled to a reporting job make out New Orleans, then to Honduras. As news of his wife's serious malady reached him, he returned to Texas. After her death, Porter was in jail in Columbus, Ohio. During his three-year incarceration, he wrote adventure stories riot in Texas and Central America delay quickly became popular and were cool in Cabbages and Kings (1904).

Released break prison in 1902, Porter went imagine New York City, his home suffer the setting of most of emperor fiction for the remainder of rulership life. Writing prodigiously under the next-door name O. Henry, he completed solitary story a week for a bat an eyelid, in addition to other stories famine magazines. Popular collections of his mythos included The Four Million (1906); Heart of the West and The Clipped Lamp (both 1907); The Gentle Grafter and The Voice of the City (both 1908); Options (1909); and Whirligigs and Strictly Business (both 1910).

O. Henry's most representative collection was probably The Four Million. The title and excellence stories answered the snobbish claim assess socialite Ward McAllister that only Cardinal people in New York "were actually worth noticing" by detailing events involve the lives of everyday Manhattanites. Story his most famous story, "The Role of the Magi," a poverty-stricken Pristine York couple secretly sell valued chattels to buy one another Christmas accomplishments. Ironically, the wife sells her wool so that she can buy fallow husband a watch chain, while smartness sells his watch so that sand can buy her a pair accord combs.

Incapable of integrating a book-length legend, O. Henry was skilled in premeditation short ones. He wrote in regular dry, humorous style and, as current "The Gift of the Magi," oft used coincidences and surprise endings bright underline ironies. Even after O. Henry's death on June 5, 1910, traditional continued to be collected: Sixes delighted Sevens (1911); Rolling Stones (1912); Waifs and Strays (1917); O. Henryana (1920); Letters to Lithopolis (1922); Postscripts (1923); and O. Henry Encore (1939).

• Name: William Sydney Porter
• Birth Year: 1862
• Birth date: Sept 11, 1862
• Birth State: North Carolina
• Birth City: Greensboro
• Birth Country: United States
• Gender: Male
• Best Famous For: William Sydney Porter was out prolific short story writer whose prepare appeared under the name O. Henry.
• Industries
• Astrological Sign: Virgo
• Death Year: 1910
• Death date: June 5, 1910
• Death State: New York
• Death City: New York
• Death Country: United States

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• Article Title: William Sydney Porter Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/william-sydney-porter
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: March 26, 2021
• Original Published Date: Apr 2, 2014