The O. Henry Short Story Collection - Volume I - Including The Gift Of The Magi and The Ransom Of Red The Last Of The Troubadours - The Sleuths - Witches' Loaves - The Pride Of The Cities - Holding Up A Train - Ulysses And The Dogman - The Champion Of The Weather - Makes The Whole World Kin - At Arms With Morpheus - A Ghost Of A Chance - Jimmy Hayes And Muriel - The Door Of Unrest - The Duplicity Of Hargraves - Let Me Feel Your Pulse - October And June - The Church With An Overshot-Wheel - New York By Camp Fire Light - The Adventures Of Shamrock Jolnes - The Lady Higher Up - The Greater Coney - Law And Order - Transformation Of Martin Burney - The Caliph And The Cad - The Diamond Of Kali - The Day We Celebrate -
Such volumes as Cabbages and Kings (1904) and The Four Million (1906) collect short stories, noted for their often surprising endings, of American writer William Sydney Porter, who used the pen name O. Henry.
His biography shows where he found inspiration for his characters. His era produced their voices and his language.
Mother of three-year-old Porter died from tuberculosis. He left school at fifteen years of age and worked for five years in drugstore of his uncle and then for two years at a Texas sheep ranch.
In 1884, he went to Austin, where he worked in a real estate office and a church choir and spent four years as a draftsman in the general land office. His wife and firstborn died, but daughter Margaret survived him.
He failed to establish a small humorous weekly and afterward worked in poorly-run bank. When its accounts balanced not, people blamed and fired him.
In Houston, he worked for a few years until, ordered to stand trial for embezzlement, he fled to New Orleans and thence Honduras.
Two years later, he returned on account of illness of his wife. Apprehended, Porter served a few months more than three years in a penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio. During his incarceration, he composed ten short stories, including A Blackjack Bargainer, The Enchanted Kiss, and The Duplicity of Hargraves.
In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he sent manuscripts to New York editors. In the spring of 1902, Ainslee's Magazine offered him a regular income if he moved to New York.
People rewarded other persons financially more. A Retrieved Reformation about the safe-cracker Jimmy Valentine got $250; six years later, $500 for dramatic rights, which gave over $100,000 royalties for playwright Paul Armstrong. Many stories have been made into films.
Many short stories give you a very deep aftertaste, make you think more about life, happiness, morality,... O.Henry is really good at this, explore more about human nature and thinking throughout his stories