{{Short description|American writer (1855–1921)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2014}} {{Infobox writer | embed = | honorific_prefix = | name = Edgar Saltus | honorific_suffix = | image = Edgar Saltus.jpg | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | pseudonym = | birth_name = Edgar Evertson Saltus | birth_date = {{Birth date|1855|10|8}} | birth_place = New York City, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1921|7|31|1855|10|8}} | death_place = New York City, U.S. | resting_place = Sleepy Hollow Cemetery | occupation = {{flatlist| * Biographer * essayist * historian * novelist * poet }} | language = | residence = | nationality = | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = {{Plainlist| * Yale University * Columbia Law School }} | home_town = | period = 1884–1921 | genre = <!-- or: | genres = --> | subject = <!-- or: | subjects = --> | movement = Decadent movement | notable_works = | spouse = {{Plainlist| * {{marriage|Helen Sturgis Read|1883|1891|end=divorced}} * {{marriage|Elsie Welch Smith|1895|1911|end=died}} * {{marriage|Marie Flores Giles|1911}} }} | partner = <!-- or: | partners = --> | children = | relatives = Francis Saltus Saltus (half-brother) | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | years_active = | module = | website = <!-- {{URL|example.org}} --> | portaldisp = <!-- "on", "yes", "true", etc.; or omit --> }}
'''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|date=October 2022}}
Under the pseudonym '''Myndart Verelst''', Saltus translated works by Balzac,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Balzac |first1=Honoré de |url=http://archive.org/details/afterdinnerstori00balzrich |title=After-dinner stories from Balzac |last2=Verelst |first2=Myndart |last3=Saltus |first3=Edgar |date=1886 |publisher=New York, George J. Coombes |others=University of California Libraries}}</ref> Théophile Gautier, and Prosper Mérimée;<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Mérimée |first1=Prosper |url=http://archive.org/details/talesbeforesuppe00mriala |title=Tales before supper, from Théophile Gautier and Prosper Mérimée; |last2=Verelst |first2=Myndart |last3=Saltus |first3=Edgar Evertson |date=1887 |publisher=New York, Chicago : Brentano's |others=University of California Libraries}}</ref> he also wrote using the name '''Archibald Wilberforce'''.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/bibliographyofam0007unse/page/n9/mode/2up?view=theater |title=Bibliography of American Literature, Vol. 7 |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1983 |editor-last=Blanck |editor-first=Jacob |location=New Haven & London |pages=326–337, 685}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780787652036/mode/2up?view=theater |title=Contemporary Authors, Vol. 210 |publisher=The Gale Group |year=2003 |isbn=0787652032 |editor-last=Peacock |editor-first=Scot |pages=362–3}}</ref>
==Early life and education== Edgar Saltus was born in New York City on October 8, 1855, to Francis Henry Saltus and his second wife, Eliza Evertson,<ref>{{Cite news|last=Vrooman, Jr.|first=Isaac H.|date=1909-03-20|title=New York Times Saturday Review of Books|work=New York Times|location=New York City|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1909/03/20/101034702.pdf|access-date=2020-05-24}}</ref> both of Dutch descent.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Saltus, Edgar Evertson (1855-1921), writer|url=https://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-1601433|last=Keene|first=Ann T.|website=American National Biography|year=2000|language=en|doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1601433|isbn=978-0-19-860669-7|access-date=2020-05-24}}</ref> He attended St. Paul's in Concord, New Hampshire. After two semesters at Yale University, Saltus entered Columbia Law School in 1878,<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Weir|first=David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WyKcHJCGeiYC|title=Decadent Culture in the United States|publisher=SUNY Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-7914-7917-9|location=Albany, New York|language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|206–207}} graduating with a law degree in 1880.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Person Detail: Edgar Evertson Saltus|url=http://www.nyslittree.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/DB.PersonDetail/PersonPK/1637.cfm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110104130256/http://www.nyslittree.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/DB.PersonDetail/PersonPK/1637.cfm|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 4, 2011|website=The NYSCA Literary Map of New York State and The NYSCA Literary Tree|access-date=2020-05-24}}</ref>
==Career== 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,<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|26–30}} while ''The Anatomy of Negation'' (1886) tried "to convey a tableau of anti-theism from Kapila to Leconte de Lisle".<ref>''The Anatomy of Negation'', p. 10, cited in Weir, ''Decadent Culture'', pp. 32–33</ref>
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."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ljungquist|first=Kent|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QaARAQAAMAAJ|title=Nineteenth-century American Fiction Writers|publisher=Gale Research|year=1999|isbn=978-0-7876-3096-6|location=Farmington Hills, Michigan|pages=215|language=en}}</ref> In time, he became a member of the Theosophical Society,<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Saltus|first=Marie|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37398|title=Edgar Saltus: The Man|publisher=Pascal Covici|year=1925|location=Chicago|language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|180–182}} an organization that studied, synthesized and experimented with the more esoteric concepts and practices of world religions.
==Personal life== 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.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Leary|first=Lewis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ND9dDwAAQBAJ|title=American Literature to 1900|publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education|year=1980|isbn=978-1-349-16418-9|pages=266|language=en}}</ref> 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).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Crocker|first=Aimée|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KywaAAAAYAAJ|title=And I'd Do It Again|publisher=Coward-McCann|year=1936|pages=288|language=en}}</ref>
Saltus and his first wife appeared in the 1887 first edition of the New York, ''Social Register''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c3304368|title=Social Register: 1887|series=New York social register |publisher=Social Register Association|year=1986|isbn=0-940281-00-7|location=New York, NY|pages=102}}</ref>
His elder half-brother Francis Saltus Saltus was a minor poet. Both brothers are buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Famous Interments|url=https://sleepyhollowcemetery.org/about/famous-interments/|website=Sleepy Hollow Cemetery|access-date=2020-05-25}}</ref>
==Legacy== Acclaimed by fellow writers in his day, Saltus fell into obscurity after his death.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=McKitrick|first=Eric|date=1951|title=Edgar Saltus of the Obsolete|journal=American Quarterly|volume=3|issue=1|pages=22–35|doi=10.2307/3031184|jstor=3031184|issn=0003-0678}}</ref>
His novel ''The Paliser Case'' was adapted to film in 1920,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wlaschin|first=Ken|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U5UZDgAAQBAJ|title=Silent Mystery and Detective Movies: A Comprehensive Filmography|publisher=McFarland|year=2009|isbn=978-0-7864-4350-5|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|pages=171|language=en}}</ref> and his novel ''Daughters of the Rich'' was filmed in 1923.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Munden|first=Kenneth White|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rlLbRAPOgP0C|title=The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States|publisher=University of California Press|year=1997|isbn=978-0-520-20969-5|location=Berkeley, California|pages=173|language=en}}</ref>
''Edgar Saltus: The Man'', a biography by Marie Saltus, Edgar's third wife, was published in 1925.<ref name=":1" /> ''Edgar Saltus'', a critical study by Claire Sprague, appeared in 1968.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Sprague|first=Claire|url=https://archive.org/details/edgarsaltus0000spra|url-access=registration|title=Edgar Saltus|series=Twayne's United States Authors Series|publisher=Twayne Publishers|year=1968|isbn=978-0-8057-0644-4|language=en|issn=0496-6015}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Collection: Edgar Saltus papers|url=https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/1580|website=Archives at Yale|access-date=2020-05-24}}</ref>
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.
==Works== {{wikisource|works=or}}
===Essays, history, and philosophy=== *''Balzac''. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin. 1884. *''The Philosophy of Disenchantment''. New York: Belford, 1885. *''The Anatomy of Negation''. London: Williams and Norgate, 1886. *''Love and Lore''. New York: Belford, 1890. *''Imperial Purple''. Chicago: Morrill, Higgins, 1892. *''The Pomps of Satan''. London: Greening, 1904. *''Historia Amoris''. New York: Mitchell Kennerley, 1906. *''The Lords of the Ghostland''. New York: Mitchell Kennerley, 1907 *''Oscar Wilde: An Idler’s Impression''. Chicago: Brothers of the Book, 1917. *''The Imperial Orgy''. New York: Boni and Liveright, 1920. *''The Gardens of Aphrodite''. Philadelphia: Pennell Club, 1920. *''Parnassians Personally Encountered''. Cedar Rapids: Torch Press, 1923. *''The Uplands of Dream''. Chicago: Pascal Covici, 1925 (Compilation of sixteen essays published in magazines between 1900 and 1914). *''Victor Hugo and Golgotha''. Chicago: Pascal Covici, 1925. *''The Philosophical Writings of Edgar Saltus: The Philosophy of Disenchantment & The Anatomy of Negation'' (2014) {{ISBN|9780988553644}}
===Fiction=== *''Mr. Incoul’s Misadventure''. New York: Benjamin and Bell, 1887. *''The Truth About Tristrem Varick''. Chicago: Belford, Clarke, 1888. *''Eden''. Chicago: Belford, Clark, 1888. *''A Transaction in Hearts''. New York: Belford, Clarke, 1889. *''A Transient Guest and Other Episodes''. New York: Belford, Clarke, 1889. *''The Pace That Kills''. Chicago: Belford, Clarke, 1889. *''Mary Magdalen''. New York: Belford, 1891. *''The Facts In The Curious Case of Hugh Hyrtl, Esq''. New York: P.F. Collier, 1892. *''Madam Sapphira''. New York: F. Tennyson Neely, 1893. *''Enthralled''. London: Tudor Press, 1894. *''When Dreams Come True''. New York: P. F. Collier, 1895. *''Purple and Fine Women''. New York; Ainslee, 1903. *''The Perfume of Eros''. New York: A. Wessels, 1905. *''Vanity Square''. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1906. *''Daughters of the Rich''. New York: Mitchell Kennerley, 1909. *''The Monster''. New York: Pulitzer, 1912. *''The Paliser Case''. New York: Boni and Liveright, 1919. *''The Ghost Girl''. New York: Boni and Liveright, 1922. *''The Princess of the Sun and Other Decadent Stories''. Snuggly Books, 2022. {{ISBN|9781645250999}}
===Poetry=== *''Poppies and Mandragora''. New York: Harold Vinal, 1926.
===Translations=== *''Balzac: After-Dinner Stories'' [as Myndart Verelst]. New York: George J. Coombes, 1886. *''Merimee, Prosper and Theophile Gautier. Tales Before Supper'' [as Myndart Verelst]. New York: Brentano's, 1887. *''Barbey d’Aurevilly. Story Without A Name''. Chicago: Belford, 1891; New York: Brentano's, 1919 (new introduction). :<small>Adapted from the author bibliography that appears in ''Edgar Saltus'' by Claire Sprague.</small><ref name=":2" />{{Rp|145–6}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{Cite book|chapter=Edgar Evertson Saltus|editor-last1=Blanck|editor-first1=Jacob|editor-link1=Jacob Blanck|editor-last2=Smyers|editor-first2=Virginia L.|editor-last3=Winship|editor-first3=Michael|url=https://archive.org/details/bibliographyofam0007blan|url-access=registration|title=Bibliography of American Literature|year=1983|publisher=Yale University Press; Bibliographical Society of America|isbn=0-300-03839-9|oclc=557668|volume=7|pages=326–337}}
==External links== * {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/edgar-saltus}} *{{Gutenberg author |id=1417| name=Edgar Saltus}} *{{Gutenberg author |id=38822| name=Marie Saltus}} *{{Librivox author|id=10910}} *{{Internet Archive author |sname=Edgar Evertson Saltus}} *{{IMDb name|0759130}} *{{LCAuth|n80036685|Edgar Saltus|84|}} *Edgar Saltus Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. *[https://web.archive.org/web/20120321093839/http://www.absintheliteraryreview.com/archives/fierce7.htm Edgar Saltus: Forgotten Genius of American Letters?] *[http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/PrintMovie.aspx?Movie=2090&s=1 Entry from the American Film Institute catalog of ''The Paliser Case''.]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Saltus, Edgar}} Category:1855 births Category:1921 deaths Category:19th-century American biographers Category:19th-century American essayists Category:19th-century American male writers Category:19th-century American novelists Category:19th-century American poets Category:20th-century American biographers Category:20th-century American essayists Category:20th-century American historians Category:20th-century American male writers Category:20th-century American novelists Category:20th-century American poets Category:American male biographers Category:American male novelists Category:American people of Dutch descent Category:American Theosophists Category:Burials at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Category:Columbia Law School alumni Category:Novelists from New York (state) Category:Pseudonymous writers Category:St. Paul's School (New Hampshire) alumni Category:Writers from New York City