Author of more than 600 short stories, O Henry has been called America's answer to Maupassant. Like Maupassant, he is a master of surprise endings, but his stories are warmer and more optimistic.Humorous, dramatic, occasionally tragic, they catch the whole flavour of America in the last years of the 19th and the first years of the 20th centuries.

O Henry’s picturesque career, including a spell in prison, gave him a special feeling for the seamy side of life and provided him with a glorious array of characters - burglars, conmen, struggling artists, bumptious journalists, star-crossed lovers, gamblers, drunks and down-and-outs. Set in New York or small town America, his stories capture the pathos and heroism of ordinary lives and satirise the rich and famous.

A hundred years after his death, this centenary selection pays homage to one of America’s best-loved and most characteristic writers.

O Henry - O Henry was the pen name of American writer William Sydney Porter (1862 - 1910). His short stories are well known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and ingenious plot twists. The O Henry Award remains as a prestigious annual prize given to outstanding short stories.

Tom Stacey -

Author of Tribe, The Pandemonium, Bodies and Souls, Deadline(filmed for television with John HUrt), and The Worm in the Rose. He is the author of seven novels, including the seminal work The Brothers M, partly set in Ruwenzori. Other works include collections of short stories and two books of remote travel. He is the winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and of the Granada Award as Foreign Correspondent of the Year, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He is married, has five children and many grandchildren, and lives in Kensington and North Wales.

For more information on Tom Stacey please visit his website at http://www.tomstacey.com.

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By the same author or foreword writer:
The Man Who Knew Everything By Tom Stacey;  Sir Peregrine Worsthorne (Foreword)
Heart of Darkness By Joseph Conrad;  Tom Stacey (Foreword)