Despite his rough life, unconventional style, and mixed thoughts and reviews, O. Henry is now considered one of the very best short story authors there ever were.
O. Henry's life influenced his writings in many ways. William Sydney Porter was born into a typical middle class family in 1862. He helped his uncle in a pharmacy during his teen years, until moving to Texas to help on a ranch. There in Texas he found his wife Athol Estes. Later he found work as a bank teller. When money was repeatedly reported missing from the bank he was accused of embezzlement. Hearing this he fled to New York and became a reporter. These jobs helped him to write about everyday people, which is what he was. Almost everyone can relate to characters in his stories. This is why his stories are so widely spread to a variety of people. Not only did he write about himself and the people in his life, but he also wrote about his surroundings of the inner cities of New York and rural areas of Texas. The moving around helped him not to get fixed on writing about similar actions or events. It kept the reader interested because his stories were always different, but they could always relate. A few months after he fled he had gotten word that his wife was seriously ill. He rushed back to Austin. After his wife had pasted away he was found guilty of embezzlement and sentenced to five years in a federal penitentiary in Ohio. There he was released after three years for his help in the penitentiary's pharmacy and his good behavior. Being in jail for three years helped him turn his life around and started his carrier as an author known by his pen name of O. Henry. For quite a few years O. Henry led a happy life. Then in his early forties, despite the success of his stories and his second marriage, he slipped into alcoholism and depression. In 1910 he died unhappy and poor with less than a dollar to his name.
The Legend of San Jacinto by O. Henry shows many...