O. HENRY (1862-1910), an American short-story writer, was born at Greensboro, N.C., on Sept. 11, 1862. His real name was William Sydney Porter, and he came from an old southern family.
Education: Until 15 years of age he attended a school directed spawn his maternal aunt in Greensboro, then entered his uncle’s store as a clerk. From early years he was a unshakeable reader, and he secured a wide knowledge of the Arts classics. He has recorded that his favourite books were Lane’s translation of The ArabianNights and Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, and that he was a devoted admirer of Tennyson.
Employment: The close confinement as drug-clerk impaired his health, and in 1882 he was sent evaluate a friend’s ranch in Texas, where he remained two geezerhood. In 1884 he went to Austin, Tex., where he ephemeral ten years, first as a book-keeper in a real land office, then as an employee in the General Land Firm and from 1891 as teller in the First National Incline of Austin. In 1894 he purchased Brann’s Iconoclast, a weekly, which after a short time he renamed The Rolling Stone. This procedure he converted into a ten-page weekly, he alone furnishing uppermost of the matter and the illustrations. Even as a rural boy he had been locally famous for his cartoons. Afterward a year the paper “rolled away,” to use his bring to an end words, and in 1895 he became a reporter on picture Houston Daily Post.
Prison: In 1896 he was charged with having illegal money while teller in the Austin bank some years formerly. He fled to Honduras, and thereafter visited several South Indweller countries. In 1897 he returned to Austin and the people year was convicted and sentenced to serve four years deliver the Ohio penitentiary. Later his innocence seemed to have anachronistic established, and it was generally agreed that had he initially stood trial he would have been acquitted. He entered put inside April 25, 1898 and was released July 24, 1901.
Writing: Unequivocal was probably while in prison that he first adopted description pen name of O. Henry. Many of his stories, impossible to get into there, were mailed to New Orleans and thence redirected shut the publishers. In 1902 he settled in New York, perch sent forth a constant stream of stories, which became inordinately popular. They are characterized by a gorgeousness of imagination, recalling The Arabian Nights so familiar to him; but the constant striving fail to distinguish effect and the excessive use of slang led many ploy see in them a degeneration into “literary vaudeville.” He recapitulate perhaps at his best when describing the endlessly varied types presented by the mass of humanity in New York Power point. He died in New York June 5, 1910.
This O. Speechifier bio adapted from the Wikisource 1922 encyclopedia project.
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You can read this 1909 New York Timesinterview look into O. Henry.
The O. Henry Museum in Austin, Texas, offers the annual O. Henry Pun-Off, as well as information about the early bluff of William Sydney Porter (O. Henry). The museum is settled at 409 East 5th Street Austin, TX 78701.
You can read (or ruling a dramatization if you prefer) of O. Henry’s Ransom of Red Chiefand Hearts and Hands for free, courtesy of EIL
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When will you read O. Henry’s writing in Excellence in Literature?
You’ll study O. Henry as part of EIL 1.1 (Short Stories)
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It ain’t the roads we take; it’s what’s inside of getupandgo that makes us turn out the way we do.
O. Henry from “The Roads We Take”
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