After Mark Twain and Edgar Allen Poe, William Sydney Porter (known as O Henry) is the most read author in the world and bears the title of « master of the short story ». He has been called many things. Some people have called him the twentieth-century Balzak. Some have called him the American Maupassant because of his so well made surprising endings.
The short story is the one fundamental and self-contained genre in American prose fiction, and the stories of O. Henry certainly made their appearance in consequence of the prolonged and incessant cultivation of the genre
The real O. Henry is found in an irony pervading all his stories, in a keen feeling for form and traditions. Americans cannot help wanting to prove a resemblance in outlook between Him and Shakespeare--it is their way of expressing "national pride."
So, who is that William Sydney Porter?
William Sydney Porter was born on September 11, 1862, in Greensboro, North Carolina. He grew up in the post-Civil War......

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Title: O Henry
Approximate Word Count: 2985
Approximate Pages: 12 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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