William Sydney Porter (O. Henry) was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, on September 11, 1862. He moved to Texas in 1882, where he would live for the next 15 years, holding jobs as a pharmacist, clerk, cartoonist, cartographer, and banker. While in Texas, he married Athol Estes and had two children, one of whom died as an infant. In 1894, Porter began publishing a newspaper named The Rolling Stone; however, after a year, he gave up the endeavor when he could not make a profit. Shortly after, Porter was accused of embezzlement while working at the bank, leading him to flee the country and travel to Honduras. However, when he learned that his wife’s health was failing, he traveled back to Austin, Texas, to take care of her until she died in 1897. After his wife’s death, Porter was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to five years in prison in Columbus, Ohio.

While he was in prison, Porter began writing short stories under the pseudonym of O. Henry. After serving three and a half years, Porter was released for good behavior and moved to New York in 1902, where he continued writing as O. Henry. For the next four years, Henry wrote short fiction pieces for the weekly magazine New York Sunday World, where many of his most famous short stories were published.