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 Porter (Attorney General) William Porter (Attorney General) William Porter (1805–1880) was attorney-general of the Cape Colony and a drafter of its first constitution in 1854. William Porter was born in Ireland (Derry) on 15 September 1805 into a family with strong liberal convictions. He read law and was called to the Bar of Ireland in 1831. Political manoeuvrings in Britain in the 1830s led to an interim of liberal control in London, and the new government swiftly replaced conservative civil servants with known liberals throughout the Empire. Porter's family's liberal convictions, as well as his own, put him in line for such an