There at the Department of foreign literature opened the book exhibition dedicated to the 150-th anniversary of the well-known American writer O’Henry (William Sidney Porter).  O’Henry is the outstanding American writer, prosaic, the author of popular novellas, the acknowledged master of short story characterized by the subtle humour and unexpected denouements.
William Sidney Porter was born on September 11, 1862 in the town of Greensborough in the state of North Carolina. After school he studied to become a pharmaceutical specialist.
In 1894 Porter starts the publication in Austin of the humoristic weekly “Rolling Stones” almost completely filling it with his own essays, jokes, verses and drawings. After the accusations in embezzlement he was hiding for half a year in Honduras, after that in South America.
After the return to the USA he was condemned and put to prison in Columbus, Ohio, where he spent three years (1898-1901).
While in prison, Porter wrote short stories under the pseudonym “O’Henry”.
The first short story “The Christmas gift of Dick the Whistler” was published in 1899 in “McClure’s Magazine”. In the spring of 1902 O’Henry moved to New-York. At the end of 1903 he signed a contract with the New-York publication “World” for the supply on the weekly basis of a short story each Sunday. O’Henry was working at a high tempo, simultaneously writing short stories for other periodicals.
The only novel of O’Henry “Cabbages and Kings” saw the light in 1904. After that there followed the collections of short stories: “The four million”, 1906; “The trimmed lamp”, 1907; “Heart of the West”, 1907; “The voice of the city”, 1908; “The gentle grafter”, 1908; “Roads of destiny”, 1909; “Options”, 1909; “Strictly business”, 1910 and “Whirligigs”, 1910.
The writer died on June 5, 1910 in New-York. After eight years of O’Henry’s demise in order to commemorate him there in 1918 was established the annual literary prize for the best short story. For the first time the O’Henry’s prize was awarded in 1919 and nowadays it is awarded each year. The prize is awarded to the best authors of short stories published in American and Canadian magazines. The short stories are published in the collection “The O’Henry Prize stories”. The winners in different years were: Truman Capote, William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, John Updyke, Woody Allen, Steven King and others.
There by the motifs of O’Henry’s short stories were made several films.
There into the collection “Postscripts” published after the death of O’Henry, entered the feuilletons, sketches and humoristic notes written by him for the newspaper “Poste” (Huston, Texas, 1895-96). Altogether the writer wrote more than 300 short stories, the full collection of his works comprises 18 voulmes. In American literature he is known as the master in the genre of “short story”.
There at the exhibition from the fond of the National library of the RK are presented the works of the author in the English and Russian languages: “The short stories” (1969),“Selected works in three volumes” (1975),“Selected stories” (1979),“The purple dress” (1990),“Kings and cabbages” (1991) and others, and also the translations of his works in the Kazakh language published on the pages of the periodical press.
Dear readers! We invite you to visit the book exhibition. | 
