O. Henry

[oh hen-ree]

noun

1. pen name of William Sydney Porter.

O. Henry

/ əʊ ˈhɛnrɪ /

noun

1. pen name of William Sidney Porter. 1862–1910, US short-story writer. His collections of stories, characterized by his use of caricature and surprising endings, include Cabbages and Kings (1904) and The Four Million (1906)

Henry, O.

1. A twentieth-century American author known for “The Gift of the Magi” and other short stories. He specialized in surprise endings. His real name was William Sydney Porter.

Example Sentences

Short story writers like O. Henry dazzled readers with their deft finales.

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I feel like “Christmas Eve” has a slight O. Henry, “Gift of the Magi” element to it — another literary reference that hopefully the kids who watch “Frog and Toad” will read someday.

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“She started me on Nancy Drew once we had the basics. Then she moved me on to O. Henry.”

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“It was like some O. Henry short story: We got what we wanted, a quote-unquote pro-life president and this was not what I wanted,” she recalled earlier this year.

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Like O. Henry, Brown regularly employed surprise endings throughout his work.

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