Yda Hillis Addis

Yda Hillis Addis
Yda Addis
Born 1857
Leavenworth, Kansas
Occupation Writer
Nationality American
Spouse
Charles A. Storke
(m. 1890; div. 1894)
Disappeared 1902
California
Status dead
Other names Yda Storke
Yda Addis Storke

Yda Hillis Addis, (born 1857,[1] disappeared 1902) was the first American writer to translate ancient Mexican oral stories and histories into English. The most widely published of her more than 100 stories are The Romance of Ramon and Roger's Luck.[2]

Early background

Addis was born in 1857 in Leavenworth, Kansas,[2] and moved with her family to Chihuahua, Mexico, at the start of the American Civil War.[3] The daughter of an itinerant photographer, Alfred Shea Addis, she roamed the Western frontier and Mexican wilderness, into Indian villages, miners' camps, and other exotic locations, mostly in California and Mexico, assisting her father. When she was 15, she and her family moved to Los Angeles where she graduated with the first class of Los Angeles High School; a graduating class of seven students.[3] She also began teaching seven-year-olds.

Fiction-writing career

Addis wrote many short stories, drawn from Mexican oral sources, as well as original fiction. Her writings included ghost tales, visitations of the unseen, tragic love triangles, and stories that presaged American feminism. In 1880 she submitted her stories of heroines, such as Poetic Justice and Señorita Santos, to The Argonaut,[3] a bi-monthly San Francisco journal, founded by Frank M. Pixley. Soon her work was appearing in other publications such as The Californian, The Overland Monthly, Harper's Monthly, San Francisco Chronicle, Examiner, Los Angeles Herald, St. Louis Dispatch, Chicago Times, Philadelphia Press, McClure Syndicate and many Mexican newspapers and periodicals.

Personal life

Pixley introduced her to his good friend and former California governor John G. Downey, in his late sixties. When Downey's sisters discovered that he and Addis had become engaged, they shanghaied him to Ireland leaving Addis to sue for breach of promise.[4] Before the trial date, Addis left San Francisco for Mexico City to write for the bilingual newspaper Two Republics, owned by J. Magtella Clark. When the editor, Theodore Gesterfeld, became distracted with Addis' wit and charm, the editor's wife, Ursula, sued for divorce and named Addis a co-defendant. In Gesterfeld's testimony, he admitted to committing adultery, but not with Addis.

With this unfavorable publicity, Addis left Mexico for Santa Barbara, California, and began collecting material about prominent citizenry of the area for a book of biographies to be published by Lewis Publishing Company. During one of her interviews she met and shortly afterward married Charles A. Storke, a local attorney and owner of the Santa Barbara News-Press. Addis' history of Santa Barbara, her only book, was published in 1891.[3] Addis said she was treated badly by her husband and his teenage son Tommy. She accused Storke of some peculiar intimate behaviors and violence toward her.[5] Storke retaliated with a divorce complaint on the grounds that Addis was insane.[6]

During the divorce Addis discovered that her attorney, Grant Jackson, esq., was in duplicity with Storke. She shot Jackson, who survived, but she spent eight months in prison. When she was released, the divorce was not final and Addis requested alimony. At this time Clara Shortridge Foltz stepped in briefly to defend Addis. Storke refused to pay the $500 a month that Addis requested and instead had Addis committed to an insane asylum. Addis later escaped from the asylum, and disappeared.

See also

References

  1. ↑ One authority suggests 1859 as the year of her birth. See "Addis, Alfred Shea", in Palmquist et al., Pioneer photographers from the Mississippi to the continental divide, p. 68
  2. 1 2 Mighels, Ella Sterling (1893). The story of the files: a review of California writers and literature. San Francisco: Cooperative Printing Co. pp. 225–226. Retrieved March 12, 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Rasmussen, Cecilia (October 22, 2006). "A 19th century firecracker flames out in her private life". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 12, 2010.
  4. ↑ The San Francisco Examiner July 28, 1887, p. 1, col. 1.
  5. ↑ Starr, Kevin (1991). Material Dreams: Southern California Through the 1920s. Americans and the California dream. Oxford University Press, United States. p. 290. ISBN 0-19-507260-X.
  6. ↑ "Mrs. Storke's Statement". Los Angeles Herald. 14 August 1891. p. 5. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.

Further reading

  • "Yda Addis-Stroke - The Lady Tells About Her Marital Troubles". The Los Angeles Times. 8 August 1891. p. 3. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  • "A Statement about the Correspondence with Her Husband". The Los Angeles Times. 22 August 1891. p. 2. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  • "The Sensational Storke Divorce Suit on Trial". The Los Angeles Times. 18 July 1892. p. 7. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  • "The Sensational Storke Divorce Suit Continued". The Los Angeles Times. 18 July 1892. p. 7. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  • "The Storke Divorce Suit the All-Absorbing Topic". The Los Angeles Times. 7 Jan 1892. p. 7. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "The Storke Divorce Suit Still on Trial". The Los Angeles Times. 18 July 1892. p. 7. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  • "Testimony in the Storke Divorce Suit All in". The Los Angeles Times. 18 July 1892. p. 7. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  • "The Storke Case". Los Angeles Herald. 18 July 1892. p. 3. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  • "The Findings in the Storke Divorce Case". The Los Angeles Times. 7 February 1892. p. 7. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  • "Now an Inmate of the Santa Barbara Poorhouse". The Los Angeles Times. 11 July 1892. p. 9. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  • "Yda Addis Storke's Statement". Los Angeles Herald. 16 July 1892. p. 6. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  • "The Storke Divorce Decided in Favor of the Planfiff". The Los Angeles Times. 29 December 1894. p. 9. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  • "A Family Fracas". Los Angeles Herald. 4 August 1898. p. 5. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  • "Was She From Levenworth". The Leavenworth Times. 28 February 1899. p. 8. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  • "Mrs. Storke On Trial". The San Francisco Call. 28 May 1899. p. 1. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  • "Yda Addis Storke Guilty Of Libel". The San Francisco Call. 22 June 1899. p. 2. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  • "Well Armed for Her Purpose". Alexandria Gazette. 10 July 1899. p. 2. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  • "Tried To Kill An Attorey". San Francisco Chronicle. 10 July 1899. p. 1. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  • "Yda Addis Sentenced". Santa Cruz, California: Evening Sentinel. 12 July 1899. p. 3. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  • "Police Protection Asked by a Man Threatened by Yda Addis". The Los Angeles Times. 15 July 1899. p. 9. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  • "No Indictment Found Against Yda Addis Storke-Jackson". The Los Angeles Times. 3 December 1899. p. 7. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  • "Yda Addis Under Close Surveillance". Santa Cruz, California: Evening Sentinel. 21 December 1899. p. 3. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
  • "Yda Addis Storke Is Free". Santa Cruz, California: Evening Sentinel. 12 May 1900. p. 3. Retrieved 18 July 2017 – via newspapers.com.
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