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 Bradshaw (writer) "Turkish Spy", but this conjecture is negatived by counter claims supported on better authority. William Bradshaw (writer) William Bradshaw (fl. 1700) was a British hack writer. Bradshaw was originally educated for the church. The eccentric bookseller John Dunton, from whom our only knowledge of him is derived, has left a flattering account of his abilities. Dunton wrote "His genius was quite above the common order, and his style was incomparably fine. … He wrote for me the parable of the magpies, and many thousands of them sold". Bradshaw lived in poverty and debt, and under the additional burden of a