The Last Leaf

"The Last Leaf"
Author	O. Henry
Original title	"huggard leaf"
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Short story
Published in	"The Trimmed Lamp and Other Stories"
Publication date	1907

"The Last Leaf" is a short story by O. Henry published in 1907 in his collection The Trimmed Lamp and Other Stories.

The story is set in Greenwich Village. It tells the story of an old artist who saves the life of a young artist, dying of pneumonia, by giving her the will to live. She can see a tree through the window gradually losing its leaves, and has taken it into her head that she will die when the last leaf falls. Seemingly, it never does fall, and she survives. We learn that in reality the tree lost all its leaves. What what she thought she saw was a leaf, painted on the wall with perfect realism, by the old artist. The old artist dies of pneumonia contracted while being out in the wet and cold, painting the last leaf.

"The Last Leaf" has been adapted frequently on film and stage. Notable film adaptations include

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