- Porter is said to have derived the pen-name O. Henry from the name of a girlfriend's cat.
- Died at the age of forty seven. An alcoholic, he died virtually penniless.
- Licensed as a pharmacist at 19 (1881). He worked as a pharmacist during his imprisonment for embezzlement (1898-1901).
- In 1888, his wife gave birth to a premature son, who died a few hours later. Their daughter Margaret Worth Porter was born on September 30, 1889.
- Arrested and convicted of embezzling funds from the bank that employed him, he was sent to the penitentiary at Columbus, Ohio to serve a five year sentence. He began writing his by-now famous short stories in prison in order to help support his daughter, Margaret. He was released after three years and soon after changed his pen name to O. Henry.
- Though many sources indicate O. Henry's real name as "William Sydney Porter", his middle name at birth was actually Sidney with an "i". He changed the spelling of his middle name to "Sydney" when he began working for newspapers in the 1880s.
- His only formal education was received at the school of his Aunt Lina, where he developed a lifelong love of books.
- Second wife Sara Lindsey Coleman was his childhood sweetheart.
- Worked as a draftsman in the Texas General Land Office (Austin), and is believed to have illustrated J. W. Wilbarger's "Indian Depredations in Texas" (1889).
- Inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame in 1996 (inaugural class).
- Porter died alone on June 5, 1910, age 47, at New York City's Polyclinic Hospital, where he had been diagnosed with kidney failure, cirrhosis of the liver and diabetes.
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