O. Henry: 101 Stories

William Sidney Porter, better known by his pen name, O. Henry, was one of the world’s great storytellers, a master of cunning plots that unfold with propulsive narrative force and a gifted humorist who ranks among the best in our literature. Though he is most famous today for the beloved tale “The Gift of the Magi,” O. Henry’s palette of moods and methods was broad, as expansive as his exuberant imagination. This Library of America volume offers a fresh look at his singular literary genius.

Selected and expertly annotated by journalist and biographer Ben Yagoda, here are 101 of O. Henry’s short stories, including such enduringly popular tales as “The Ransom of Red Chief,” in which a ten-year-old boy proves to be more than a match for his bungling kidnappers, and “The Cop and the Anthem,” about a down-on-his-luck hobo desperately trying to get arrested so he can spend the winter in a warm cell.

Among other highlights are several of his Honduras stories, drawn from Porter’s experiences in Central America while on the run from the law; adventures of the sardonic embezzler Jeff Peters and his scam-artist colleagues; and tales of the Texas range like “The Caballero’s Way,” which introduces the murderous desperado the Cisco Kid.

At the heart of the collection are Porter’s vivid New York stories. O. Henry was the original wanderer in the city (“It’ll be a great place if they ever finish it”), capturing in his stories the lives of the many and various people who throng its streets: shop girls, tycoons, immigrants, cops, criminals, con-men, and tourists. “When I first came to New York,” he recalled, “I spent a great deal of time knocking about around the streets. I did things I wouldn’t think of doing now.” He turned those experiences and observations into such gems as “Twenty Years Later” and “The Last Leaf.” Many of these stories feature O. Henry’s signature twist endings, and they reveal all the serendipity of urban life with warmth and wit.

Rounding out the volume are O. Henry’s final, posthumously published stories, “Let Me Feel Your Pulse,” “The Snow Man,” and “The Dream,” and, as a special feature, three early stories published for the first time. Here is an O. Henry for the twenty-first century, a fully annotated edition that showcases the extraordinary range of a great American writer.