vs. The Gift of the Magi

The Gift of the Magi

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This article is about the short story. For the Magi that visited baby Jesus, see Biblical Magi.

"The Gift of the Magi"
Author	O. Henry
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Short story
Published in	The Four Million
Publication type	Anthology
Publication date	December 10, 1905 (newspaper); April 10, 1906 (book)[1]

"The Gift of the Magi" is a short story, written by O. Henry (a pen name for William Sydney Porter), about a young married couple and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money. As a sentimental story with a moral lesson about gift-giving, it has been a popular one for adaptation, especially for presentation at Christmas time. The plot and its "twist ending" are well-known, and the ending is generally considered an example of comic irony. It was allegedly written at Pete's Tavern^[2] on Irving Place in New York City.

The story was initially published in The New York Sunday World under the title "Gifts of the Magi" on December 10, 1905. It was first published in book form in the O. Henry Anthology The Four Million in April 1906.