According to J. F. Clarke, it is from the name of the French pharmacist Etienne Ossian Henry, whose name is in the U.S. Dispensary which Porter used working in the prison pharmacy. [12] On the sidewalk at the corner of the house Policeman Cleary was standing with one ear upturned, listening to the crash of household utensils.

The couple continued to participate in musical and theater groups, and Athol encouraged her husband to pursue his writing. Athol gave birth to a son in 1888, who died hours after birth, and then a daughter, Margaret Worth Porter, in September 1889. Porter was released on July 24, 1901, for good behavior after serving three years. He reunited with his daughter Margaret, now age 11, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Athol's parents had moved after Porter's conviction.While he was in Houston, the First National Bank of Austin was audited and the federal auditors found several discrepancies. They managed to get a federal indictment against Porter. Porter was subsequently arrested on charges of embezzlement, charges which he denied, in connection with his employment at the bank. In 1896 he was indicted for alleged embezzlement by the bank for which he had worked, and fled to Honduras. He returned three years later to be with his dying wife, was arrested and spent three years in the federal penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio. Here Porter started to write short stories under the pseudonym of O. Henry, thought to be adopted from a French pharmacist mentioned in the US Dispensary, a reference book which Porter came across in his work in the prison pharmacy. His collections of stories were immediately popular, and include The Four Million (1906), Heart of the West (1907), The Trimmed Lamp (1907), The Gentle Grafter (1908), The Voice of the City (1908), Options (1909), Roads of Destiny (1909), Whirligigs (1910) and Strictly Business (1910). Other collections were published after Porter’s death of a wasting disease in 1910. O Henry Memorial Awards were established to be given annually for the best magazine stories. Further Reading Porter traveled with Dr. James K. Hall to Texas in March 1882, hoping that a change of air would help alleviate a persistent cough he had developed. He took up residence on the sheep ranch of Richard Hall, James' son, in La Salle County and helped out as a shepherd, ranch hand, cook, and baby-sitter. While on the ranch, he learned bits of Spanish and German from the mix of immigrant ranch hands. He also spent time reading classic literature.

My cosmopolite made a large adieu and left me, for he thought that he saw someone through the chatter and smoke whom he knew. So I was left with the would-be periwinkle, who was reduced to Würzburger without further ability to voice his aspirations to perch, melodious, upon the summit of a valley. The O. Henry Award is a prestigious annual prize named after Porter and given to outstanding short stories. Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1922 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference Oh, yes,’ said the small star-gazer, ‘I know as much as any of them about the style of sleeves they’re going to wear next fall in Mars.’This 1907 story is about two con men who go to visit an art collector, and hatch a plan to sell the wealthy man a rare carving. But is the carving – supposedly one of only two of its kind in existence – all that it appears to be? As this is an O. Henry story, we know there’s a twist coming …