William Sydney Porter was born in 1862 on a plantation called "Worth Place  near Greensboro, North Carolina. His parents were Algernon Sydney Porter and Mary Jane Virginia Swain Porter. When William was three, his mother died. He and his father then moved into Greensboro to the home of his paternal grandmother. William was an eager reader and graduated from his Aunt Evalina Maria Porter's elementary school in 1876. He then enrolled at the Linsey Street High School. His Aunt continued to tutor him until he was 15. In 1879, he started working as a bookkeeper in his Uncle's drugstore. In 1881, at the age of nineteen, he was licensed as a pharmacist. Porter's writing started in 1902, when he moved to New York City to be near his publishers. He wrote 381 short stories living there. He wrote a story a week for a year for the New York World Sunday Magazine. His characterization and plot twists were loved by his readers. O' Henry stories are famous for there surprise endings. He was called the American Guy De Maupassant. Both authors wrote twist endings, but O' Henry stories were much more playful and optimistic. Most of O' Henry stories are set in his own time, the early years of the 20th century. Many take place in New York City, and deal for the most part with ordinary people: clerks, hoboes, policeman, and waitresses. His stories are also known for funny narration. In the story "The Gift of the Magi  concerns a young couple who are short of money but desperately want to buy each other Christmas gifts. Unknown to Jim, Della sells her most valuable possession, her beautiful hair, in order to buy a platinum fob chain for Jim's watch. Unknown to Della, Jim sells his most valuable possession, his watch, to buy jeweled combs for Della's hair. This story had been re-told countless times in the century it was written. In the story "The Ransom of Red Chief  concerns two men who kidnap a boy at the age of ten. The boy turns out to be