O. Henry's real name was William Sidney (Sydney) Porter. He was born
in Greensboro, North Carolina, 1862, of mixed Quaker (Connecticut) and
Southern (Virginia) ancestry. His mother, a woman of remarkable
strength of character and some literary talent, died in 1865, and O.
Henry's rearing was entrusted to his paternal grandmother. His father
was a physician, but apparently a business failure at everything he
attempted. What schooling O. Henry had was received in the little
private school of an aunt, Miss Lina Porter. From early boyhood he
worked in the drug store of an uncle, and long before he was twenty he
was a registered pharmacist.
In 1882 O. Henry left for Texas to seek a dryer climate. It was feared
that he was developing consumption. He settled on the Hall ranch in La
Salle County, almost half way between San Antonio and the Mexican
border. He spent two years on the ranch and in 1884 went to Austin.
During his first three years there, he lived as practically an adopted
son in the home of Mr. Joe Harrell, who was also a native of
Greensboro. He worked at various "jobs"--cigar-store clerk,
pharmacist, etc.
In 1887 O. Henry secured a position in the State Land Office as
assistant compiling draftsman. Here he remained for four years--the
happiest ones, it seems, in his life. The position meant to him
prosperity; and five months after he had begun his work, he was
married to Miss Athol Estes, the daughter of Mrs. G. P. Roach. There
was a romantic elopement, a family reconciliation, and what O. Henry
called "a settling down to a comedy of happiness ever afterwards."
It was shortly after he took up his work in the Land Office that O.
Henry first marketed his writings. The amount received for a "string
of jokes and sketches" accepted by the Detroit Free Press was small,
but it was to increase steadily, even during the most troublous period
of his life. As a boy in Greensboro he was known for his drawings and
cartoons, and while on the ranch in Texas he drew some pictures and
also wrote to his relatives and friends in North Carolina letters
indicative of his later literary style.
A change in the State administration in 1891 meant that O. Henry's
position in the Land Office was lost. He became connected with the
First National Bank of Austin as paying and receiving teller, where he
was to work until December, 1894. Before giving up his position in the
bank, he had undertaken the publication of a humorous, semi-political
weekly, The Rolling Stone, published at Austin and later
simultaneously in Austin and San Antonio. After he left the bank, he
had to depend on The Rolling Stone for all his income, but without
capital he could not make of it a financial success. It existed only a
year, from April 28, 1894, to April 27, 1895. Almost six months passed
before O. Henry left Austin to become a staff contributor to the
_Houston Daily Post_. His first work appeared in the Post on October
19, 1895.
It was shortly after this date that an ominous shadow settled over O.
Henry's head. In February of 1896 the Federal Grand Jury at Austin
brought an indictment against W. S. Porter, charging the embezzlement
of funds while he was acting as paying and receiving teller of the
First National Bank of Austin. Finally, summoned to trial in July,
1896, O. Henry left Houston to answer the charge; but he only got as
far as Hempstead. There it was necessary to change trains; but instead
of taking the train for Austin, he returned to Houston and then went
on to New Orleans. When next heard from, he was in Honduras. In
January, 1897, after six month's absence O. Henry received news of the
serious illness of his wife. He set out to join her immediately and
reached Austin by February 5, 1897. He at once reported to the civil
authorities. His bondsmen had not been assessed, and he was allowed to
go free but with his bond doubled.
His wife died of tuberculosis the following July, and in February,
1898, O. Henry' case came to trial. He plead not guilty, but for some
unknown reason he maintained an utter indifference throughout the
trial. On March 25 he was sentenced to imprisonment in the Federal
Ward of the Ohio State Penitentiary. On account of good behavior,
however, O. Henry's term in prison was shortened to a little over
three years. On July 24, 1901, he again became a free man. His ability
as a pharmacist gave him the opportunity to work in prison at
something comparatively easy. But what is of most interest to us in
regard to his life there is that by the time he got out of confinement
he was pretty well known, under the pseudonym of O. Henry by editors
of a number of America's most popular magazines.
As soon as he was out of prison O. Henry went to join his daughter and
the Roaches, who were then living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He now
devoted all his energies to writing, and in the spring of 1902 he was
called to New York. The eight years that O. Henry spent in the great
metropolis were marked by an astonishing fecundity in literary
production and an ever increasing fame as the writer of a peculiar
type of short story, now known universally as the "O. Henry short
story."
O. Henry died in New York City on June 5,
1910, and was buried in Asheville, North Carolina. The only other
event of his life which should be recorded here is his marriage in
1907 to Miss Sara Coleman, a sweetheart of his North Carolina days,
and author of Wind of Destiny in which appear many letters written to
her by O. Henry just before their marriage.