O. Henry for the Holidays
O. Henry
Oct 2025 · Library of America
Ebook
112
Pages
family_home
Eligible
info
infoThis book will become available on October 7, 2025. You will not be charged until it is released.
About this ebook
The perfect stocking stuffer: All seven of O. Henry’s classic holiday stories, including "The Gift of the Magi," collected in one volume
Complete with helpful notes about the stories' biographical and cultural contexts
“There are just as many real Christmas stories as ever, if we would only dig ’em up,” wrote William Sydney Porter. The first short story he published under the pen name O. Henry was a holiday tale (“Whistling Dick’s Christmas Stocking”), while his best-known work, “The Gift of the Magi,” has inspired countless Yuletide movies and television episodes. Library of America presents all seven of his seasonal offerings—including two about Thanksgiving, the “one day that is purely American.”
You’ll meet characters only O. Henry could have imagined: Maida, a shop clerk who scrimps and saves for a new dress to wear to the employee holiday party. Stuffy Pete, a homeless man who suffers through the generosity of back-to-back Thanksgiving dinners. The Frio Kid, a murderous outlaw who unexpectedly commits a single act of generosity. Whistling Dick, a “visiting gentleman” (or, some might say, a tramp) who stumbles upon Boston Harry’s gang planning to execute a potentially lethal act of arson and robbery. Cherokee, a gold prospector who strikes it rich and, dressed as Santa Claus, brings gifts for the children he thought would be living in a rough-and-tumble mining town. And Fuzzy, an alcoholic “soldier of misfortune,” who stumbles upon the lost rag doll belonging to a millionaire’s five-year-old daughter.
Always witty, often outrageously funny, and filled with O. Henry’s famous plot twists, these stories take readers from New Mexico and Texas, through New Orleans, and to New York City to find the holiday spirit all across America.
Complete with helpful notes about the stories' biographical and cultural contexts
“There are just as many real Christmas stories as ever, if we would only dig ’em up,” wrote William Sydney Porter. The first short story he published under the pen name O. Henry was a holiday tale (“Whistling Dick’s Christmas Stocking”), while his best-known work, “The Gift of the Magi,” has inspired countless Yuletide movies and television episodes. Library of America presents all seven of his seasonal offerings—including two about Thanksgiving, the “one day that is purely American.”
You’ll meet characters only O. Henry could have imagined: Maida, a shop clerk who scrimps and saves for a new dress to wear to the employee holiday party. Stuffy Pete, a homeless man who suffers through the generosity of back-to-back Thanksgiving dinners. The Frio Kid, a murderous outlaw who unexpectedly commits a single act of generosity. Whistling Dick, a “visiting gentleman” (or, some might say, a tramp) who stumbles upon Boston Harry’s gang planning to execute a potentially lethal act of arson and robbery. Cherokee, a gold prospector who strikes it rich and, dressed as Santa Claus, brings gifts for the children he thought would be living in a rough-and-tumble mining town. And Fuzzy, an alcoholic “soldier of misfortune,” who stumbles upon the lost rag doll belonging to a millionaire’s five-year-old daughter.
Always witty, often outrageously funny, and filled with O. Henry’s famous plot twists, these stories take readers from New Mexico and Texas, through New Orleans, and to New York City to find the holiday spirit all across America.
About the author
O. Henry, the pen name of William Sydney Porter (1862–1910), was a prolific American writer of several hundred stories and sketches, including “The Gift of the Magi,” “The Ransom of Red Chief,” “A Retrieved Reformation,” and “The Caballero’s Way.”
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