After a shady past in jail, William Sydney Porter, does an excellent job of writing the short story, Masters of Arts. Living a short life, William Porter, or more famously known as O. Henry, vividly lives life to the fullest and brings this experience into all of his famous stories like The Ransom of Red Chief and Cabbages and Kings. Porter was brought into prison in Ohio, because he didn't respond for questioning about possible embezzlement; so he got charged, went to prison, and wrote 14 stories based on encounters in jail life to get money for his poor daughter, Margaret, at home. "In 1894 Porter started a humorous weekly The Rolling Stone." Porter probably got the idea for Masters of Arts, from listening to fellow prisoners and their jail stories.

The setting being Coralio, Anchuria and being somewhat modern was important to show that Porter could do anything he...