In 1909, the most popular writer of American fiction was a well-dressed inebriate, New York man-about-town named William Sydney Porter. The name "O. Henry" had first seen print only a decade before, protecting the identity of a convicted embezzler in the Ohio Federal Penitentiary. As O. Henry, Will Porter wrote short stories of immense appeal, full of the humor of words and the funnier jokes that life plays on those who strive, contrive, or love. Before his death at the age of 47, Porter had published 381 short stories--stories which virtually defined that form for many years to come and which are still read in American schools and in translation throughout the world