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 Sclater (writer) his summer home in Port Sydney, Ontario. William Sclater (writer) William Sclater (1906 - 1980) was a Scottish-Canadian journalist and naval officer, who won the Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction at the 1947 Governor General's Awards for "Haida", his account of the history of the Royal Canadian Navy destroyer HMCS Haida. Born in Scotland, Sclater served with the British forces in Malaya from 1925 to 1927. He moved to Canada in 1931, joining the Royal Canadian Navy and attaining the rank of lieutenant-commander. He later worked as a journalist and as executive secretary of the Canadian Horse Show Association.