O. Henry

"O. Henry" was born William Sydney Porter, 1862, in North Carolina. While William Sydney Porter lived a troubled life full of alcoholism, ill health, failed marriages, and was imprisoned for embezzlement, "O. Henry" produced some of the greatest short stories in American fiction, each in turn filled with a quaint, colloquial humor, the triumph of true love and a firm belief in the better part of humanity. In 1910, at age 47, Porter died virtually penniless after publishing 300 stories and having been held as America's most beloved short story writer. We can only hope that, in the end, Henry believed in Porter as much as he did in all the lonely, lovable old sinners he scribbled into existence.