O. Henry [1862-1910] Pages at Spirit of America Bookstore

"More than any other author, O. Henry represents the spirit of youth, specifically the cardinal
element of youth: the expectation of finding something wonderful around all of life's corners."
— Ayn Rand [1905-82]

William Sidney [later spelled Sydney] Porter was born 11 September 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina. Under the pen name of 'O. Henry' he wrote nearly 300 short stories. He may not have invented the 'twist' ending, but his 'entertainments', with their irony and compassion and, some might say, old-fashioned sentiment, were and still are widely admired, and his reputation in American letters remains secure to this day, nearly a century later.

He left school at 15 to work, then at 19 moved to Texas, where he worked on a sheep ranch and breaking bronchos and other jobs. He moved to Austin, Texas in 1884, working at a land office and at a bank. In July of 1887, he eloped to marry beautiful Athol Estes; she bore him a son, who died within hours, then a daughter, Margaret in 1889. Irregularities discovered in his accounts at the bank in October 1894 caused him to flee, to Houston, where he worked at a newspaper. Imminent prosecution led him to flee again, leaving wife and child behind, to New Orleans and then to Honduras.

He returned to America in January 1897 upon learning that his wife was seriously ill, and soon after her death was convicted on a federal charge of embezzlement, although the government's case was weak. The three years and three months that he spent in prison in Ohio cast a shadow on his later life, and is cited as the reason for his pen name and for his insistence that his editors keep his identity secret.

In 1902, he moved to New York City, eventually writing 140 stories that took place in 'Baghdad on the Hudson'. He took up a correspondence with a woman from North Carolina; after a long-distance romance and several trips by the woman to New York, he married Miss Sara Lindsay Coleman in November 1907. Hollywood grabbed the rights to "Heart of The West", intending to make a series of Cisco Kid Westerns, and Doubleday bought the rights to his stories, providing an increase in income. His daughter graduated from school, and Will and Sara and Margaret moved into a home on Long Island.
But he would stop neither his visits to Manhattan nor his drinking; Sara left him twice, returning to North Carolina for good in early 1909.

O. Henry's career was brief and success fleeting: the first book of short stories, "Cabbages & Kings" was published in 1904; his second book, "The Four Million" was widely popular, and although subsequent books were also popular, he suffered a stroke in 1909 and died a penniless alcoholic 5 June 1910 in New York City, at the age of 51.

While O. Henry's stories can be characterized as period pieces – with off-hand references to people, places, and events of now-bygone times – his books have never been out of print. His birth town of Greensboro has memorialized him by naming a hotel and a major street in his honor, and producing the O. Henry Festival each April, while Austin, Texas maintains a museum in the house where he wrote his comic weekly "Rolling Stone".
The O. Henry Award for the Short Story was launched in 1919; each year an anthology is published, recently named the P.E.N. / O. Henry Prize Stories.

"Cabbages & Kings" [18 Central American stories; 1904]
The Proem: By The Carpenter, "Fox In The Morning", "The Lotus and The Bottle", "Smith", "Caught", "Cupid's Exile Number Two", "The Phonograph and The Graft", "Money Maze", "The Admiral", "The Flag Paramount", "The Shamrock and The Palm", "The Remnants of The Code", "Shoes", "Ships", "Masters of Arts", "Dicky", "Rouge et Noir", "Two Recalls", "The Vitagraphoscope"

Amereon hardcover [5/2002] for $24.95
Blackstone UNABR audio [1/99] 5 tapes for $39.95

Edition illustrated by Guy Davenport
Penguin pb [6/93] out of print/used

"The Four Million" & Other Stories [25 stories; 1906]
"Tobin's Palm", "The Gift of The Magi", "A Cosmopolite In A Cafe", "Between Rounds", "The Skylight Room", "A Service of Love", "The Coming-Out of Maggie", "Man About Town", "The Cop and The Anthem", "An Adjustment of Nature", "Memoirs of A Yellow Dog", "The Love-Philtre of Ikey Schoenstein", "Mammon and The Archer", "Springtime a La Cart", "The Green Door", "From The Cabby's Seat", "An Unfinished Story", "The Caliph, Cupid and The Clock", "Sisters of The Golden Circle", "The Romance of A Busy Broker", "After Twenty Years", "Lost On Dress Parade", "By Courier", "The Furnished Room", "The Brief Debut of Tildy"

Amereon hardcover [6/76] out of print/used
Airmont pb [6/63] for $3.95
Fredonia 8x5 pb [12/2000] for $17.95
BooksOnTape UNABR audio [10/82] 6 tapes for $36.00

"Heart of The West" [19 stories; 1907]
"Hearts and Crosses", "The Ransom of Mack", "Telemachus, Friend", "The Handbook of Hymen", "The Pimienta Pancakes", "Seats of The Haughty", "Hygeia At The Solito", "An Afternoon Miracle", "The Higher Abdication", "Cupid a La Carte", "The Caballero's Way" {basis for 'The Cisco Kid'}, "The Sphinx Apple", "The Missing Chord", "A Call Loan", "The Princess and The Puma", "The Indian Summer of Dry Valley Johnson", "Christmas By Injunction", "A Chaparral Prince", "The Reformation of Calliope"

Fredonia 8x5 pb [12/2000] for $17.95
online etexts at Project Gutenberg

'The Cisco Kid & Pancho' Page at
'Readers of the Purple Sage' Western Bookstore

"The Voice of the City" [26 stories; 1908]
"Voice of the City", "The Complete Life of John Hopkins", "A Lickpenny Lover", "Dougherty's Eye-Opener", "Little Speck In Garnered Fruit", "The Harbinger", "While The Auto Waits", "A Comedy In Rubber", "One Thousand Dollars", "The Defeat of The City", "The Shocks of Doom", "The Plutonian Fire", "Nemesis and The Candy Man", "Squaring The Circle", "Roses, Ruses, and Romance", "The Four Roses", "The City of Dreadful Night", "The Easter of The Soul", "The Fool-Killer", "Transients In Arcadia", "The Rathskeller and The Rose", "The Clarion Call", "Extradited From Bohemia", "A Philistine In Bohemia", "From Each According To His Ability", "The Memento"

Fredonia 8x5 pb [12/2000] for $17.95
online text at Authors Directory
online HTML stories at PageByPage Books

"The Gentle Grafter" [14 stories; 1908]
"The Octopus Marooned", "Jeff Peters As A Personal Magnet", "Modern Rural Sports", "The Chair of Philanthromathematics", "The Hand That Riles The World", "The Exact Science of Matrimony", "A Midsummer Masquerade", "Shearing The Wolf", "Innocents of Broadway", "Conscience In Art", "The Man Higher Up", "A Tempered Wind", "Hostages To Momus", "The Ethics of Pig"

Amereon/Ayer hardcover [6/76] for $21.95
online HTML stories at PageByPage Books

"Options" [16 stories; 1909]
"The Rose of Dixie", "The Third Ingredient", "The Hiding of Black Bill", "Schools and Schools", "Thimble, Thimble", "Supply and Demand", "Buried Treasure", "To Him Who Waits", "He Also Serves", "The Moment of Victory", "The Head-Hunter", "No Story", "The Higher Pragmatism", "Best-Seller", "Rus In Urbe", "A Poor Rule"

Fredonia 8x5 pb [12/2000] for $17.95
online text at Authors Directory
online HTML stories at PageByPage Books

"Strictly Business" [23 stories; 1910]
"Strictly Business", "The Gold That Glittered", "Babes In The Jungle", "The Day Resurgent", "The Fifth Wheel", "The Poet & The Peasant", "The Robe of Peace", "The Girl & The Graft", "The Call of The Tame", "The Unknown Quantity", "The Thing's The Play", "A Ramble In Aphasia", "A Municipal Report", "Psyche & The Pskyscraper", "A Bird of Bagdad", "Compliments of The Season", "A Night In New Arabia", "The Girl & The Habit", "Proof of The Pudding", "Past One At Rodney's", "The Venturers", "The Duel", "What You Want"

Fredonia 8x5 pb [3/2001] for $22.95
online HTML stories at PageByPage Books

"Whirligigs" [24 stories; 1910]
"The World and The Door", "The Theory and The Hound", "The Hypotheses of Failure", "Calloway's Code", "A Matter of Mean Elevation", "Girl", "Sociology In Serge and Straw", "The Ransom of Red Chief", "The Marry Month of May", "A Technical Error", "Suite Homes and Their Romance", "The Whirligig of Life", "A Sacrifice Hit", "The Roads We Take", "A Blackjack Bargainer", "The Song and The Sergeant", "One Dollar's Worth", "A Newspaper Story", "Tommy's Burglar", "A Chapparal Christmas Gift", "A Little Local Color", "Georgia's Ruling", "Blind Man's Holiday", "Madame Bo-Peep, of The Ranches"
online text at Authors Directory

"Waifs & Strays" [1917]
PART I [12 stories]: "The Red Roses of Tonia", "Round The Circle", "The Rubber Plant's Story", "Out of Nazareth", "Confessions of A
Humorist", "The Sparrows in Madison Square", "Hearts and Hands", "The Cactus", "The Detective Detector", "The Dog and the Playlet",
"A Little Talk About Mobs", "The Snow Man"
online HTML stories at PageByPage Books

"O. Henry á La Carte: The Gift of The Magi & Other Favorites" [1973]
"The Gift of The Magi", "Hard To Forget", "Chanson de Boháeme", "Springtime á La Carte", "The Ransom of Red Chief",
"Nothing To Say", "The Last Leaf", "A Strange Story", "The Old Farm", "Two Portraits", "Hearts & Hands"
Hallmark/Abrams hardcover [1973] out of print/used

	"The Essential O. Henry Collection (200+ works)" for Kindle Kindle Edition from Amazon Digital Services [undated] for $4.99 Contains 14 original short story collections (with active table of contents): "Cabbages and Kings", "The Four Million", "The Gentle Grafter", "The Gift of The Magi", "Heart of The West", "Options", "Roads of Destiny", "Rolling Stones", "Sixes and Sevens", "Strictly Business", "The Trimmed Lamp", "The Voice of The City", "Waifs and Strays", and "Whirligigs"
	"Works of O. Henry (200+ Works)" for Kindle [2009] Kindle Edition from MobileReference [1/2009] for $4.61 Contains the standard 14 original short story collections (with active table of contents) including "232 stories, A-Z"
	"Works of O. Henry" for Kindle [2009] Kindle Edition from Douglas Editions [8/2009] for 99¢ {sic} Contains the standard 14 original short story collections PLUS "The Boy Scout's Book of Stories" [D. Appleton 1920] by Franklin K. Mathiews
	"The O. Henry Omnibus: 272 Short Stories in One Volume" for Kindle [2009] Kindle Edition from Halcyon Classics [11/2009] for $1.99 {sic} Internal index lists only 13 (of 14) original short story collections (with active table of contents), yet the cover advertises "272 stories"
	"Complete Works of O. Henry (Illustrated)" for Kindle [2011] Kindle Edition from Delphi Classics [9/2011] for $1.99 {sic} Contains the standard 14 original short story collections PLUS story collections "O Henryana" [1920] and "The Two Women" [1910]; O. Henry’s poetry and letters; C. Alphonso Smith’s biography; many photographs & illustrations; and the 1918 story collection "My Tussle With The Devil" by O. Henry’s Ghost – all with active tables of contents
	"O. Henry Short Stories Collection: 100+ Stories" for Kindle [2015] Kindle Edition from Amazon Digital Services [11/2015] for 99¢ {sic} 108 stories listed on the index

	41 Stories by O. Henry [1991] Edited by Burton Raffel N.A.L. pb [4/91] for $5.35
	Stories by O. Henry [1991] Tor Books pb [9/91] for $3.59
	Selected Stories of O. Henry [1993] Edited by Guy Davenport Viking 7¾x5 pb [7/93] for $11.16
	"Life Without Katy" & Other Stories [1993] Edited by D.H. Howe, illustrated by Gavin Coates Oxford Univ Press pb [2/93] for $7.94
	Tales of O. Henry [62 stories 1993] Barnes & Noble pb [10/99] for $11.94 Barnes & Noble hardcover [9/93] out of print/used
	The Best of O. Henry [26 stories; 1994] Illustrated by Anton Caravana American Guidance pb [6/94] for $4.95 A.G. ReadAlong pb & cassette pkg [6/94] for $15.49 American Guidance Service audio [6/73] for $4.95 Cassette Works [1/85] for $14.94 http://www.amazon.com/Best-Henry-Courage-Classics/dp/156138111X/
	"O. Henry: Selected Stories" [100 stories 1997] Penguin pb [7/93] for $11.16 Wordsworth Classics trade pb [9/97] out of print/used N.T.C. hardcover [1/98] out of print/used
	"The Gift of the Magi" & Other Stories [1997] Illustrated by Michael Dooling William Morrow 9¼x7 hardcover [9/97] for $17.46 "Gift of The Magi" page
	"O. Henry (Bloom's Major Short Story Writers)" [1998] Edited & with an Introduction by Harold Bloom Chelsea House 9¼x6¾ library hardcover [12/98] out of print/used

	"Sixes & Sevens" [1911] Fredonia 8x5 pb [12/2000] for $17.95
	"Rolling Stones" [1916] pieces from O. Henry's comic weekly Fredonia 8x6 pb [12/2000] for $17.95

	"Letters To Lithopolis" [collected letters 1922] Edited by Mabel Wagnalls Eakin Publns pb [10/99] for $9.95
	"Postscripts" [1923] pieces from the Houston Post Fredonia 8x5 pb [4/2001] for $24.95

	"The Complete Works of O. Henry: The Definitive Collection of America's Master of The Short Story" [Garden City Publng 1937] 286 stories & poems; with a Foreword by Harry Hansen Doubleday & Co. 8¼x5¾ hardcover [11/60] out of print/used Doubleday & Co. hardcover [1953] 2 volumes - out of print/rare
	"O. Henry's New York" [1940] Amereon 8¾x5¾ hardcover [6/40] for $22.94
	"The Best Short Stories of O. Henry" [38 stories; 1945] Edited by Bennett A. Cerf & Van H. Cartmell Kindle Edition from Modern Library [7/2010] for $12.99 Modern Library 7½x5 hardcover [3/94] for $15.61 Modern Library hardcover [1/94] out of print/used

Spirit of America Bookstore O. HenryWilliam Sydney Porter [1862-1910]

Spirit of America Bookstore
O. Henry
William Sydney Porter [1862-1910]