Edgar Saltus | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Edgar Evertson Saltus October 8, 1855 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | July 31, 1921 (aged 65) New York City, U.S. |
| Resting place | Sleepy Hollow Cemetery |
| Occupation |
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| Alma mater | |
| Period | 1884–1921 |
| Literary movement | Decadent movement |
| Spouse | Helen Sturgis Read
(m. 1883; div. 1891)Elsie Welch Smith
(m. 1895; died 1911)Marie Flores Giles (m. 1911) |
| Relatives | Francis Saltus Saltus (half-brother) |
Edgar Evertson Saltus (October 8, 1855 – July 31, 1921) was an American writer known for his highly refined prose style. His works paralleled those by European decadent authors such as Joris-Karl Huysmans, Gabriele D'Annunzio and Oscar Wilde.[citation needed]
Under the pseudonym Myndart Verelst, Saltus translated works by Balzac,[1] Théophile Gautier, and Prosper Mérimée;[2] he also wrote using the name Archibald Wilberforce.[3][4]
Edgar Saltus was born in New York City on October 8, 1855, to Francis Henry Saltus and his second wife, Eliza Evertson,[5] both of Dutch descent.[6] He attended St. Paul's in Concord, New Hampshire. After two semesters at Yale University, Saltus entered Columbia Law School in 1878,[7]: 206–207 graduating with a law degree in 1880.[8]
He wrote two books on philosophy: The Philosophy of Disenchantment (1885) focused on philosophical pessimism and in particular the philosophy of Schopenhauer and Eduard Von Hartmann,[7]: 26–30 while The Anatomy of Negation (1886) tried "to convey a tableau of anti-theism from Kapila to Leconte de Lisle".[9]
After a conversion experience, the once anti-theist and pessimist credited Ralph Waldo Emerson with having transformed his views. In an 1896 Collier's column, he wrote, "I began to see, and what to me was even more marvelous, I began to think."[10] In time, he became a member of the Theosophical Society,[11]: 180–182 an organization that studied, synthesized and experimented with the more esoteric concepts and practices of world religions.
Saltus was married three times. He married his first wife, Helen Sturgis Read, in 1883 (divorced, 1891). At the church in the English Embassy in Paris, he married in 1895 Elsie Welch Smith (separated, 1901; died, 1911). Saltus married his third wife, author Marie Flores Giles, in 1911.[12] Saltus had a three-year love affair in the 1890s with heiress Aimée Crocker, confirmed in her memoir And I'd Do It Again (1936).[13]
Saltus and his first wife appeared in the 1887 first edition of the New York, Social Register.[14]
His elder half-brother Francis Saltus Saltus was a minor poet. Both brothers are buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York.[15]
Acclaimed by fellow writers in his day, Saltus fell into obscurity after his death.[16]
His novel The Paliser Case was adapted to film in 1920,[17] and his novel Daughters of the Rich was filmed in 1923.[18]
Edgar Saltus: The Man, a biography by Marie Saltus, Edgar's third wife, was published in 1925.[11] Edgar Saltus, a critical study by Claire Sprague, appeared in 1968.[19]
The writer and photographer Carl Van Vechten, was instrumental in convincing Saltus's daughter, Elsie Saltus Munds, to donate to Yale what is now known as the Edgar Saltus Papers, consisting of thirty-eight first editions, two of them inscribed, and eighteen letters written in 1918.[20]
A descendant through his wife Elsie, French-born James de Beaujeu Domville, was a major theatrical producer and Canadian cultural commissioner focused on the film industry.
