O. Henry Introduction

All of the information presented in this slideshow was taken from The Language of Literature (McDougal Littell copyright 2006, pages 150-153).

O. Henry

True or False –

O. Henry was born as William Sydney Porter. • Answer – True• O. Henry’s birth name was William Sydney

Porter. He was born in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1862, but later changed his name to O. Henry. What would motivate someone to change their name? Why do you think O. Henry changed his name?

True or False – William S. Porter’s mother raised him until he was 18 years old.

Answer – False• William S. Porter’s mother died when he was

three years old. He then went to live with his aunt Lina who ran a school. While living with aunt Lina, Porter developed a love for literature and reading.

True or False – At the age of 19, Porter

became a licensed pharmacist. • Answer – True

• At the age of 15, William left school to begin his training as a pharmacist. His uncle was also a pharmacist.

True or False – George Washington was president of the United States the year O. Henry was born.

• Answer – False

• Abraham Lincoln was the president of the United States the year O. Henry was born (1862). The Civil War was also happening at this time.

True or False – William Porter started The Rolling Stone.

• Answer – True

• O. Henry did not begin Rolling Stone magazine; however, he did start a weekly humorous magazine named The Rolling Stone. The weekly lasted less than a year before it went under.

Not this:

True or False – William S. Porter was arrested and charged with a federal crime?

• Answer – True • In 1896, O. Henry was arrested for stealing funds

from the bank he worked at. Supposedly, he used these funds to help keep his newspaper afloat. After his arrest, William S. Porter fled to Honduras until his wife’s health began to fail. He then returned to the United States to be by his wife’s side until she passed away at the age of 29.

True or False – William S. Porter was given sentence of five years in a federal prison.

• Answer – True

• William S. Porter was eventually found guilty of embezzling money from the bank he worked at. In prison he was treated differently than the other prisoners and was allowed to sleep in his own quarters, away from the general population. He was also given leave from the prison and allowed to walk around town unsupervised. Porter was released after serving three of his five year sentence. It is after he was released that he changed his name from William S. Porter to O. Henry.

True or False - O. Henry was a cartoonist, a writer, and a cowboy.

• Answer – True• O. Henry was a cartoonist, a writer, and a cowboy.

He often drew pictures of people in the town he grew up in. He also spent time living on a friends ranch in Texas. They say he was the only cowboy to carry a dictionary in one pocket and a book of poetry in the other.

True or False – O. Henry wrote about 300

short stories in his lifetime. • Answer – True • O. Henry wrote over three hundred short stories.

However, he had only twenty-three cents in his pocket when he was admitted to the hospital shortly before his death.