O. Henry O. Henry William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910), better known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American short story writer. His stories are known for their surprise endings. William Sidney Porter was born on September 11, 1862, in Greensboro, North Carolina. He changed the spelling of his middle name to Sydney in 1898. His parents were Dr. Algernon Sidney Porter (1825–88), a physician, and Mary Jane Virginia Swaim Porter (1833–65). William's parents had married on April 20, 1858. When William was three, his mother died after birthing her third child, and he and his
William Field Porter losses at sea, which his son said were behind his decision to migrate. Porter sold his shipyard in Liverpool and took two of his ships, "Porter", and [[Dorset (1838 ship)|"Dorset"]], provisioned with livestock and a range of personnel (including a doctor, tutors and servants), so that he could set up a relatively self-sufficient farming station in South Australia. He was accompanied by his wife, a son and daughter, William and Alice and an adult son Richard and his wife. Porter himself captained his namesake, "Porter" (a 252-ton ([[Builder's Old Measurement|bm]]) [[brig]]), which he had built in 1824 and which had