Books with author William Sidney Porter

O. Henry, the pen name of William Sydney Porter, is known for his short stories with surprise endings. In this collection you will find the following beloved O. Henry stories: “The Plutonian Fire”, “The Princess and the Puma”, “By Courier”, “The Gift of the Magi”, “The Love-Philtre of Ikey Schoenstein”, “Mammon and the Archer”, “The Memento”, “Springtime À La Carte”, “The Last Leaf”, “The Skylight Room”, “The Caliph, Cupid and the Clock”, “The Count And The Wedding Guest”, “The Romance of a Busy Broker”, “The Higher Pragmatism”, “While the Auto Waits”, “The Social Triangle”, “After Twenty Years”, “The Green Door”, “A Lickpenny Lover”, “Lost on Dress Parade”, “Transients in Arcadia”, “Brickdust Row”, “The Furnished Room”, “Schools And Schools”, “The Defeat of the City”, “Madame Bo-Peep, of the Ranches”, “From Each According to his Ability”, “The Cabellero’s Way”, “Hygeia at the Solito”, “The Higher Abdication”, “A Double-Dyed Deceiver”, “Friends in San Rosario”, “The Hiding of Black Bill”, “Jeff Peters as a Personal Magnet”, “The Man Higher Up”, “The Handbook of Hymen”, “Telemachus, Friend”, “The Lonesome Road”, “A Retrieved Reformation”, “The Renaissance at Charleroi”, “The Thing’s the Play”, “Tobin’s Palm”, “A Newspaper Story”, “Proof of the Pudding”, and “Confessions Of A Humorist”. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

Excerpt from The Big Bear of Arkansas: And Other Sketches, Illustrative of Characters and Incidents in the South and South-WestA new vein of literature, as original as it is inexhaustible in its source, has been opened in this country within a very few years, with the most marked success. Up to the period when the publication of the first American "Sporting Magazine" was commenced - at Baltimore, in 1829 - and which was immediately followed by the publication, in New York, of the "Spirit of the Times," there existed no such class of writers as have, since that recent day, conferred signal honour on the rising literature of America. The New York "Constellation," then edited by that favoured disciple of Momus, the late Dr. Green, was the only journal in the country which preferred any claim to popular favour on the ground of being expressly devoted to wit and humor - to the fun and frolic, the flash and fashion of the day. But the novel design and scope of the "Spirit of the Times" soon fixed attention; and erelong it be came the nucleus of a new order of literary talent.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry. "The Gift of the Magi" is a short story, written by O. Henry (a pen name for William Sydney Porter), about a young husband and wife and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money. As a sentimental story with a moral lesson about gift-giving, it has been a popular one for adaptation, especially for presentation at Christmas time. The plot and its twist ending are well-known, and the ending is generally considered an example of comic irony. It was allegedly written at Pete's Tavern on Irving Place in New York City. The story ends with the narrator comparing the pair's mutually sacrificial gifts of love with those of the Biblical Magi.

Excerpt from The Big Bear of Arkansas: And Other Sketches, Illustrative of Characters and Incidents in the South and South-West Gradually retreating before the swarm Of Squat ters and settlers in the new states and territories of the West, the pioneers Of a later day have finally established themselves in regions so distant as rather to overlook the Pacific than the acknowledged boundaries Of the Federal Union. But they have left behind them, on all hands, scores Of original characters to be encoun tered nowhere else under the sun. Indeed, several of the south-western states have been so recently re claimed from the Wilderness - Mississippi and Arkan sas particularly - that no one acquainted with the coun try can be surprised at the fact. In these two states destined each, we trust, to confer additional lustre on the galaxy originally composed Of the Old thirteen yet reside some of the most extraordinary men who ever lived to point a moral, or adorn a tale. With exteriors like the rugged Russian bear, some Of them are gifted with a great degree Of good sense and know ledge Of the world; it is not to be denied that many are as fond Of whiskey as of hunting, and that there are desperate and utterly reckless spirits among them; but a large majority of those to whom we refer, are charac terized by no more striking features than their courtesy to the stranger, and their passion for hunting, except it be their fondness for story-telling. Of adventures and scenes in which these characters stand out in bold re lief, this volume is mainly composed, relieved occasion ally by sketches of men and things in some of the Older southern states. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This book was written while by a man on the lam, literally, in Honduras. O. Henry (whose real name was William Sydney Porter) was awaiting trial over bank embezzlement changes, and his father in law posted bail to keep him out of jail -- but the day before Porter was due to stand trial he fled, first to New Orleans and later to Honduras. While holed up in a Trujillo, Honduras, hotel for several months, he wrote Cabbages and Kings. This is the book where Henry coined the term "banana republic" to describe the country; the term went on to be used to describe almost any small, unstable tropical nation in Latin America. And then his wife's long-term illness took a turn for the worse: she was dying of tuberculosis. Porter packed his bags and went back to face trial in Houston. This volume is the only work of O. Henry's which approaches being a novel. The stories are related and should be read in the sequence in which they occur in the book.