O Henry in The Reading Room at Kitchen Sink Dramas

The Reading Room

O Henry (1862-1910)

From his humble beginnings in Greensboro, North Carolina, O Henry (AKA William Sydney Porter) went on to achieve huge popular success as a short story writer, although his life was plagued by poverty and ill health. Employed at various stages of his life as a draftsman, bank clerk and pharmacist, he also spent three years in prison for embezzlement, where he first began publishing his fiction under the pseudonym that would later make him famous. He wrote over 300 stories during his lifetime, and although never considered of high literary merit by critics of the time, his notorious 'twist' endings and satirical sketches of American life at the turn of the century eventually brought him worldwide acclaim. He is now credited with helping define the short story as a literary art form. He admitted that many of his characters were drawn from life - a keen people watcher and hotel lobby loiterer, 'Brickdust Row' gives a taste of his incomparable eye and ear for the human appetites of ordinary American citizens.