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O. Henry was born William Sydney Porter, on September 11, 1862, in Greensboro North Carolina. He left school at the age of 15 and began working as a drugstore clerk for his uncle. He later moved to Texas where he was an office worker at a ranch and later became a bank clerk at the First National Bank in Austin. He was later indicted for embezzlement from the bank in 1896 and fled to Honduras. Porter returned upon learning his wife was terminally ill and was treated with leniency by the authorities until her death. After his conviction, he served three years of a five-year jail sentence for the crime. His early release was due to good behavior. While in prison, Porter worked as the prison’s pharmacist. He also wrote and sold short stories for magazines to support his daughter, garnering him some notoriety. He wrote under various pseudonyms to obscure the fact that he was writing from jail. 

After his release in 1901, Porter moved to New York City and became a full-time short story writer, settling on the pseudonym Oliver Henry and publishing weekly stories in magazines. As “O. Henry,” he released several popular short story collections, including The Four Million, in which “The Gift of the Magi” appears.  His life’s work totaled nearly 600 stories, mostly about American life, focusing on the everyday lives and misadventures of regular, usually working class, people. His stories were usually humorous or ironic and often concluded with a twist or surprise ending. Porter’s later life was marred by alcohol addiction, an unhappy second marriage, health problems, and financial troubles. He died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1910.

Previous section Historical Context: Life among “The Four Million” in Early 20th Century New York City

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