Short story writer O. Henry, released from the Ohio Penitentiary early in 1901
On July 24, 1901 William Sydney Porter, better known as O. Henry, was released from the Ohio Penitentiary.
He had been jailed five years for embezzlement on March 25, 1898, but was released early for good behaviour. While in prison he wrote 14 stories that were subsequently published. It was at this time he began using the pseudonym O. Henry.
O. Henry (William Sydney Porter)
Issued in 2012 by the US as part of their Literary Arts series
Designer: Ethel Kessler using an illustration by Cap Pannell
His portrait of O. Henry was based on a photograph of the author as a young man, probably from the late 1880s. As reference for the background, Pannell used an image — created by A. Loeffler in the early 20th century and now in the collection of the New York Public Library — of the elevated rail in New York. The stamp art was sketched in pencil and ink and then manipulated on the computer.
https://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2012/pr12_100.htm
The exact origin of the pen name “O. Henry” remains debated. Porter first adopted it while writing stories from prison in Ohio. Some scholars believe it was derived from a prison guard named Orrin Henry; others suggest it came from the abbreviation of the name of a French pharmacist, Étienne-Ossian Henry, found in the United States Dispensatory, a pharmacological reference work Porter used regularly. Porter himself was evasive about the origin, once quipping that he found the name in the society columns of a New Orleans newspaper.
https://americanliterature.com/author/o-henry
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