Paul Eldridge (May 5, 1888 – July 26, 1982[1]) was an American poet, novelist, short story writer and teacher.
The son of Leon and Jeanette Eldridge (née Lafleur), he was born in Bucharest, Romania on May 5, 1888[2] and immigrated with his family to the United States on August 15, 1900.[2] He later married a fellow writer, Sylvette de Lamar (author of a 1932 novel Jews With the Cross[3]). He received his B.S. from Temple University in 1909, his A.M. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1911,[4] and a doctorate from the University of Paris in 1913. He was a teacher of romance languages at the high school level in New York until his retirement in 1945.[5] He was a lecturer on American Literature at the Sorbonne in 1913 and at the University of Florence in 1923.[6] He later was an instructor of English literature at Saint John's College in Philadelphia, from 1910-1912, and was a member of the Authors' and Dramatists' League of the Authors' Guild of America.[6]
He is best known for collaborating with the American decadent novelist and poet George Sylvester Viereck, who was imprisoned as a Nazi agent in the 1940s,[7] on a trilogy of exotic fantasy novels from 1928 to 1932, My First Two Thousand Years: the Autobiography of the Wandering Jew, Salome: the Wandering Jewess and the Invincible Adam. A highly prolific author, many of his later books were published by E. Haldeman-Julius in his "Big Blue Books" series. He died at the age of 94 in a New York City nursing home on July 26, 1982.[5]
Bibliography
- Life Throbs (1911)
- Vanitas (1920)
- And the Sphinx Spoke (1921)
- Our Dead Selves: Anthology of the Lowly (1923)
- Irony and Pity: a Book of Tales (1926)
- The Intruder (1928)
- My First Two Thousand Years: the Autobiography of the Wandering Jew (With George Sylvester Viereck, 1928)
- Salome: the Wandering Jewess (With George Sylvester Viereck, 1930)
- Cobwebs and Cosmos (1930)
- The Invincible Adam (With George Sylvester Viereck, 1932)
- One Man Show (1933)
- Prince Pax (With George Sylvester Viereck, 1933)
- If After Every Tempest (1941)
- Madonna with the Cat: a Romantic Satire (1942)
- Horns of Glass (1943)
- He Who Loved His Neighbors and Other Stories (1945)
- I Bring a Sword (1945)
- Lanterns in the Night (1945)
- Lovers' Gifts and Other Stories (1945)
- The Last Supper of Marianne and Other Stories (1945)
- The Truth About Phyllis Warren and Other Stories (1945)
- Virgins and Other Stories (1945)
- Women Ain't No Fools and Other Stories (1945)
- Leaves From the Devil's Tree: A Smiling Cynic Looks at the Passing Show (1946)
- New York: This Whale of a City (1946)
- New York: The Empire State (1946)
- Two Lessons in Love: Master of hearts; Mr. Lowell and the Goddess (1946)
- A Lesson in Love (1946)
- Gamblers in Love and Other Stories (1946)
- Leaves from the Devil's Tree: a Smiling Cynic Looks at the Passing Show (1946)
- Men and Women: Stories of Love (1946)
- The Greatest Show on Earth: the Diary of a New York High School Teacher (1946)
- The Hudson: The River of Destiny 1946)
- The Jester's Holiday : a Divine Comedy (1946)
- The Way of Men with Maids and Other Stories (1946)
- Virtue, Beware! And Other Stories (1946)
- And Thou Shalt Teach Them (1947)
- Misadventure in Chastity: Antics and Romantics (1947)
- One Night: a Novel of Love in Nova Scotia (1947)
- The Whip and the Rose (1947)
- The Bed Remains: a Biography in Ten Chapters (1948)
- Blue Flames: Notes from the Diary of an Immoralist (1948)
- The Professor Goes Adventuring (1948)
- Moon Nets of the Master Spider (1948)
- Listen to Their Lust (1949)
- Curtain Call (1950)
- Flesh of the Flesh and Other Stories (1950)
- Maxims are Gadflies: The Wit and Wisdom of Paul Eldridge (1950)
- Anatole France: Master of Irony and Pity (1950)
- Erasmus: the Humanist (1950)
- Michel De Montaigne: Skeptic and Atheist (1950)
- The Kingdom Without God: Being the Last Will and Testament of Paul Eldridge (1951)
- Crown of Empire: The Story of New York State (1957)
- Tales of the Fortunate Isles (1959)
- Second Life of John Stevens (1960)
- Seven Against the Night (1960)
- The Tree of Ignorance (1962)
- Maxims for a Modern Man (1965)
- The Homecoming: a Chronicle of a Refugee Family (1966)
- The Parables of Old Cathay (1969)
- The Story-Tellers (1970)
- François Rabelais: the Great Story Teller (1971)
References
- ↑ His New York Times obituary, published July 29, 1982, states that he "died Monday" as July 29th was a Thursday his death occurred on Monday, July 26, 1982.
- 1 2 United States Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization. Ancestry.com, Eldridge 'Declaration of Intention (15 August 1900)' and official 'Petition for Naturalization (6 May 1912)'.
- ↑ Jews With the Cross, Amazon book dust jacket image & listing, Amazon.com.
- ↑ "Paul Eldridge," Class of 1911., General Alumni Catalogue of the University of Pennsylvania, 1917, ed. W.J. Maxwell, University of Pennsylvania Alumni Association, (page 470, column 2), books.google.com.
- 1 2 New York Times Obituary, July 29, 1982
- 1 2 Manning, Robert Douglas. The Jew: Screenplay, Biographical Note on Eldridge.
- ↑ "University Libraries | the University of Iowa". 18 November 2010.
External links
- Works by Paul Eldridge at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- New York Times Obituary