O. Henry, or William Sydney Porter, was born in 1862 in North Carolina. He remained in the area for 20 years before moving to Texas for health reasons. He bounced around between jobs, and he spent much of his free time drinking and flirting with women. He eloped with 17-year-old Athol Estes in 1887, after which time Porter developed into a more serious family-oriented person. He found work as a cartoonist and illustrator with Texas Land Office, but he left the position in 1891 and accepted a new job as a bank teller with the First National Bank of Austin.

While working as a teller, Porter started his own newspaper, but he failed to make a profit after a year, so he ceased his attempts. He was then fired from his job with the bank after they found $4,000 in accounting discrepancies, and he fled to Honduras to avoid embezzlement charges. However, he returned to Texas in 1897 to care for his dying wife. Once back in the US, he was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison. While in prison, Porter assumed his famous pen name and started writing short stories. He later legally changed his name to O.