O. Henry was the pen name of William Sydney Porter, born in Greensboro, North Carolina. He worked as a pharmacist, a ranch hand, a draftsman and a bank teller in Texas, and was sent to prison for three years for taking money from the bank.

He began writing stories in prison, under a new name, and in 1902 moved to New York, where for years he wrote a story a week for a newspaper. He wrote about shop girls, clerks and con men, and became famous for his surprise endings. He published hundreds of stories and died in New York in 1910.