Who Am I? (Number 2)

     I was born in Greensboro, North Carolina during the Civil War. My father was a medical doctor, and I became a licensed pharmacist at age 19. I moved to Texas in 1882.
     I was employed as a rancher, a draftsman, and a bank teller. In 1894, I was accused of bank embezzlement at The First National Bank of Austin, but I avoided immediate indictment.
     I created a humorous weekly newspaper called Rolling Stone and earned some money with it. But it failed in 1895, and I moved to Houston and went to work for the Houston Post.
     Federal prosecutors were hot on my trail and they indicted me in 1896 for embezzlement from the Austin bank. My father-in-law put up bail, and I left Texas for Honduras. While in Honduras, I coined the term "Banana Republic." I also wrote a collection of stories called Cabbages and Kings.
     I returned to Texas in 1897 because my wife was dying of tuberculosis. I was arrested by federal authorities but I obtained a temporary release on bail. My wife died in the summer of 1897.
     I was found guilty of embezzlement in 1898 and sentenced to five years in an Ohio Penitentiary. I resumed the occupation of pharmacist and worked at the prison hospital while in jail. I also wrote some stories for magazines. I was released after three years for good behavior.
     I moved to New York City in 1902. "I was glad to be in a city so great, so complex, and diversified." Over the next eight years I wrote 381 short stories. Some were published in a collection called The Four Million. I tagged New York City as "Bagdad-on-a-subway," and I found unlimited material for stories in this vast melting pot of human struggle and existence.
     I am remembered for a terse writing style, plot twists and surprise endings. During my career, I wrote Gift of the Magi, Ransom of Red Chief, The Cop and the Anthem, and Tobin's Palm.
     I was an alcoholic, and died of cirrhosis of the liver, diabetes and heart complications in 1910. I was buried at Asheville, North Carolina. My daughter is buried there too.
    Most of my stories are signed O. Henry but my real name is William Sydney Porter.
    Read Gift of the Magi and Tobin's Palm at Google books:   http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=1kxbAAAAMAAJ&as_brr=4&printsec=frontcover&output=reader

   Read Ransom of Red Chief at Google books:
http://books.google.com/books?id=DWcXAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA462&dq=ransom+of+the+red+chief&hl=en&ei=woWwTtK7Aujo0QGz0pTLAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CFoQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=ransom%20of%20the%20red%20chief&f=false

Read The Love-Philtre of Ikey Schoenstein at:  http://www.literaturepage.com/read/thefourmillion-75.html