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 Pryor (writer) William Pryor (writer) William Marlborough Pryor (born 29 January 1945) is a British writer. Pryor was born in Farnborough in 1945, to Mark Gillachrist Marlborough Pryor, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Sophie (née Raverat, now known as Gurney), daughter of Jacques Raverat and his wife Gwen (née Darwin) (granddaughter of Charles Darwin). His younger sister Lucy (born 1948) is a painter known professionally as Lucy Raverat. In 1969 he married Teresa Mary Kerrison, daughter of Roger Kerrison of Sloley Lodge. They had a daughter Lydia (born 1970), who married Simon Bostock. Pryor was educated at Eton College and studied