Yda Hillis Addis
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Yda Hillis Addis, a.k.a. Yda Addis (born 1857, disappeared 1902) was the first American writer to translate ancient Mexican oral stories and histories into English.
Addis published these stories in The Argonaut, a bi-monthly San Francisco journal, founded in 1877 by Frank M. Pixley. Addis also wrote original fiction. Her literature included ghost tales, visitation from the unseen, to tragic love triangles, and stories that were the precursor to American feminism. In her day she was published alongside authors such as Ambrose Bierce, Mark Twain, and Emma Frances Dawson in The Argonaut, Californian, Overland, 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.
While some of Addis’ contemporary writers are still known today, she and her work were lost. One of the reasons that she was forgotten was most likely due to her scandalous personal life. As the daughter of an itinerant photographer, Alfred Shea Addis, she roamed the Western frontier and Mexican wilderness, into Indian villages, miner’s camps, and other exotic locations, assisting her father with his photography. Her young life was a series of adventures that continued into womanhood as a fiction writer. As a writer in her early twenties in San Francisco, California, Frank M. Pixley introduced her to his good friend and former California governor John G. Downey, who at the time was in his late sixties. When Downey’s sisters discovered that he and Addis had become engaged, his sisters shanghaied him to Ireland leaving Addis to sue for breach of promise[1].
Before the trial date and due to the publicity of the affair, Addis left San Francisco for Mexico City to take a position as a writer on a bi-lingual 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 Miss Addis. His first adulterous affair was at a bordello on the night of August 7, 1876 and on later occasions.[2]
With this unfavorable publicity, Addis decided to leave Mexico. She arrived at Santa Barbara, California, and began collecting personal biographies of the prominent citizenry of the area for a biographical book to be published by Lewis Publishing Company, Luther Ingersol publisher and owner. During the numerous interviews with the prominent citizens of the area, she met and shortly afterwards married Charles A. Storke, a local attorney and newspaper owner -- Santa Barbara News-Press. On September 15, 1890, the San Francisco Morning Call reported the following: "An interesting wedding occurred in Santa Barbara last Wednesday evening, September 10, ... the contracting parties were Hon. C.A. Storke and Miss Yda H. Addis. Mr. Storke is one of Santa Barbara's best known and most respected citizens. He has a leading position at the bar, is already speaker, and has served in State Legislature. Miss Addis is one of the literary heads of the Coast. As a writer of short stories, she has been considered among the best of California. She is at present engaged in literary works of a special nature."
However, soon after the marriage, Addis accused Storke of some peculiar intimate behaviors and violence toward her.[3] Storke retaliated with a divorce complaint on the grounds that Addis was insane[4]. During the divorce Addis discovered that her attorney, Grant Jackson, esq., was in duplicity with Storke; she shot Jackson, he survived, but she ended up in jail for 8 months. When she was released from jail, 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. When Addis escaped the asylum, she disappeared.
Biographical Sketch by Marian Ecker
Los Angeles Times article on Yda Addis: October 22, 2006[1]
