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 Dwight Porter Bliss William Dwight Porter Bliss William Dwight Porter Bliss (August 20, 1856 – October 8, 1926) was an American Christian socialist writer, editor, and activist, as well as a pioneer historian of the world socialist movement. William Dwight Porter Bliss was born in Constantinople, Turkey on August 20, 1856, the son of Christian missionaries there. He was educated at Phillips Academy, Andover and the Hartford Theological Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut. Following his graduation in 1882, Bliss was ordained a Congregationalist minister. On June 16, 1886 he was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church, and became a priest on June 8,