O. Henry was a prolific American short-story writer—a master of surprise endings—who wrote about the life of ordinary people in New York City. In "The Gift of the Magi," one of his best-known works, a young couple at Christmas time who, despite having little money, buy secret gifts for each other. A moral lesson on the importance of love and sacrifice, "The Gift of the Magi" has been adapted to film more than a dozen times throughout the world.
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O. Henry (1862–1910), born William Sydney Porter in Greensboro, North Carolina, was a short-story writer whose tales romanticized the commonplace, in particular, the lives of ordinary people in New York City. His stories often had surprise endings, a device that became identified with his name. He began writing sketches around 1887, and his stories of adventure in the Southwest United States and in Central America were immediately popular with magazine readers.
Coleen Marlo is an Audie and Earphones award-winning narrator who was named the 2010 Publishers Weekly Narrator of the Year and has been awarded multiple Publishers Weekly Listen-Ups. A member of the prestigious Actors Studio and a founding member of The Deyan Institute of Voice Artistry and Technology, she taught acting for ten years at The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute. For more information, visit ColeenMarlo.BlogSpot.com.