The leader of the Redskins

O. Henry (1862-1910) - American writer, a famous master of short short stories and unexpected finals.
William Sidney Porter (this is the real name of the writer) was born in the family of a doctor in the city of Greensboro, North Carolina. He was left early without his parents and was brought up by his aunt family, the owner of a private school, and at the age of 16 he began to earn extra money at the pharmacy by a pharmacist. Fearing the tuberculosis, from which his mother died, William changed the climate, worked for two years in a ranch in Texas, where for the first time, at the age of 18, he began to write. Having moved to Austin, he tried many professions: an accountant at the real estate agency, a drawer in the land administration, a cashier and an accountant in the bank, and at the same time he also led his own humorous weekly Rolling Stone. But fate made a sudden turn: the bank accused him as a cashier of shortages. Porter fled and hid in South America for six months, his wife"s illness forced him to return. Although there was little evidence, the young writer was condemned and sent for three years to prison. However, a sense of humor did not leave him - it was at that time that the first publications of O. Henry were the first publications (it is possible that the pseudonym was a reduction in the name of the prison in Ohio).
Full of subtle humor, unexpected comparisons and unpredictable interchanges by the novels of O. Henry quickly gained popularity. He was compared with Maupassant and Kipling, called the "American Chekhov".
Since 1904, after the only novel, Kings and Cabbage ", nine collections of stories came out one after another:" Four million "(1906)," Light Lamp "(1907)," Heart of the West "(1907)," Voice) Cities" (1908), "noble crook" (1908), "Ways of Fate" (1909), "Favorites" (1909)," Business People "(1910) and" Cracling "(1910), in a short time they wrote almost Three hundred short stories