William Sydney Porter — better known by his pen name, O. Henry — was born in North Carolina and died in New York. But his sixteen years in Texas, from 1882 to 1898, made a lasting mark on his life and work.
Porter’s works include “The Gift of the Magi”, “The Duplicity of Hargraves”, and “The Ransom of Red Chief”. His stories are known for their surprise endings and witty narration. Porter also wrote poetry and non-fiction.
Porter’s legacy includes the O. Henry Award, an annual prize awarded to outstanding short stories.
The O. Henry Award is a prestigious annual prize named after Porter and given to outstanding short stories.
A film was made in 1952 featuring five stories, called O. Henry’s Full House. The episode garnering the most critical acclaim was “The Cop and the Anthem” starring Charles Laughton and Marilyn Monroe. The other stories are “The Clarion Call” starring Richard Widmark, “The Last Leaf”, “The Ransom of Red Chief” (starring Fred Allen and Oscar Levant), and “The Gift of the Magi”.
The 1986 Indian anthology television series Katha Sagar adapted several of Henry’s short stories as episodes including “The Last Leaf”.
An opera in one long act, The Furnished Room, with music by Daniel Steven Crafts and libretto by Richard Kuss, is based on O. Henry’s story of the same name.
The O. Henry House and O. Henry Hall, both in Austin, Texas, are named for him. O. Henry Hall, now owned by the Texas State University System, previously served as the federal courthouse in which O. Henry was convicted of embezzlement. The O. Henry House has been the site of the O. Henry Pun-Off, an annual spoken word competition inspired by Porter’s love of language, since 1978.
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