So, let`s get acquainted primarily with the author and then with the story, of course)

    O. Henry, pseudonym of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), noted American author of hundreds of short stories including my favourite ones: "The Gift of the Magi", "The Ransom of Red Chief" and "The Last Leaf".

   He was born 11 September, 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina, to physician Algernon Sidney Porter and Mary Jane Virginia Swaim. The two brothers of William died in early childhood. His mother wrote poetry and had a promising artistic temperament with a natural eye for drawing and painting, surely a talent which young Will inherited. Tragically she died of tuberculosis and Sidney started to drink. After Mary's death, widower Sidney and his shy, freckle-faced son moved to his mother's farm, that of Will's paternal grandmother.

   At the age of fifteen Porter began working as a clerk in his uncle Clark Porter's store. He saw the humour in the everyday, and made notes of all the colourful characters he encountered, fodder for his future stories.

   He was already writing short stories while he held a number of jobs including pharmacist before working with the Texas Land Office. Around this time he met Athol Estes Roach. They married in 1887 and had a daughter, Margaret Worth. Then O'Henry fled to Honduras. He returned to Austin the next year because his wife was dying. In 1897 he was convicted of embezzling bank fund, although there has been much debate over his actual guilt. In 1898 he entered a penitentiary at Columbus, Ohio.

   After being released from prison in just three years, Porter moved on to the next chapter in his life: New York City. Despite many of his works being panned by the critics he was becoming one of America's most popular short story authors.
   O'Henry's style had a great influence on modern American fiction, therefore, some critics called him "the founder of American stories".