Paul Eldridge

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]

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ a b United States Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization. Ancestry.com, Eldridge 'Declaration of Intention (15 August 1900)' and official 'Petition for Naturalization (6 May 1912)'. [1]
  3. ^ Jews With the Cross, Amazon book dust jacket image & listing, Amazon.com. [2]
  4. ^ "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. [3]
  5. ^ a b New York Times Obituary, July 29, 1982
  6. ^ a b Manning, Robert Douglas. The Jew: Screenplay, Biographical Note on Eldridge. [4]
  7. ^ "University Libraries | the University of Iowa". 18 November 2010.