O. Henry
William Sydney Porter, known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American short story writer and journalist born in Greensboro on September 11, 1862.
His life moved between two American cities: he was born in Greensboro and died in New York City on June 5, 1910, at the age of forty-seven. He worked in English throughout his career, producing fiction alongside his work as a journalist. Both roles occupied him during a writing life that ended in New York City, far from the Southern town where it began.
Among the works attributed to him, "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Last Leaf" are the most frequently cited. He also worked as a journalist, a role he held alongside his identity as a short story writer. The two titles that carry his name most prominently in the record — "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Last Leaf" — represent the short story form he practiced in English until his death in 1910.
Quotes by O. Henry
O. Henry's insights on:
The Venturer is one who keeps his eye on the hedgerows and wayside groves and meadows while he travels the road to Fortune.
I have been called 'The American De Maupassant.' Well, I never wrote a filthy word in my life, and I don't like to be compared to a filthy writer.
The people of the State of Texas consist principally of men, women, and children, with a sprinkling of cowboys. The weather is very good, thermometer rarely rising above 2,500 degrees in the shade and hardly ever below 212.
Up with the other one,” ordered the burglar. “You might be amphibious and shoot with your left. You can count two, can’t you? Hurry up, now.
Knowledge is a strong stream of water turned on us through a hose. It disturbs our roots.
And most wonderful of all are words, and how they make friends one with another, being oft associated, until not even obituary notices them do part.
