Edward S. Ellis
Edward Sylvester Ellis was an influential American writer and educator, born on April 11, 1840, in Geneva, Ohio. After moving to New Jersey at a young age, he pursued education at the State Normal School of New Jersey and began his career as a teacher. Ellis gained notoriety with his first dime novel, *Seth Jones: Or, The Captives of the Frontier*, which sold an impressive sixty thousand copies in its first week. Over his prolific career, he published numerous works under various pseudonyms, complicating the task of bibliographers. His writings encompassed a wide range of genres, including juvenile fiction, westerns, detective stories, and science fiction, often aimed at young male readers but also appealing to broader audiences.
In addition to writing, Ellis held significant educational roles, including vice principal and superintendent of education in Trenton, New Jersey. His dedication to education was recognized in 1887 when he received an honorary M.A. from Princeton University. Ellis's writing style prioritized action and relatable characters, moving away from traditional didacticism to engage readers in a rapidly evolving society. He passed away on June 20, 1916, during a vacation in Maine, leaving behind a diverse literary legacy.
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Subject Terms
Edward S. Ellis
- Born: April 11, 1840
- Birthplace: Geneva, Ohio
- Died: June 20, 1916
- Place of death: Cliff Island, Maine
Biography
Edward Sylvester Ellis was born on April 11, 1840, in Geneva, Ohio, the son of Sylvester and Mary Alberty Ellis. When he was six, the family moved to New Jersey. Edward Ellis was educated at the State Normal School of New Jersey at Trenton. Ellis married Anne M. Deane in 1862; they were divorced in 1887. They had one son, Wilmot Edward, and three daughters, Miriam, Lillian, and Helen. In 1900, Ellis married Clara Spaulding Brown, a writer.
After graduating from New Jersey’s Normal School, Ellis became a teacher at Red Bank, New Jersey. He had already tried his hand at writing: he had published a poem and had sold a novel to The New York Dispatch, where it had appeared in serial form. However, it was his first dime novel, Seth Jones: Or, The Captives of the Frontier, that made Ellis one of the best-known writers in America. The book sold sixty thousand copies the first week. The publisher immediately put Ellis under a five-year contract; however, Ellis soon began turning out dime novels (under a pseudonym) for another company. As the years passed, Ellis sold so many dime novels to so many different publishers, using so many different pseudonyms, that scholars despair of ever arriving at a complete and accurate bibliography. The fact that many of Ellis’s books appeared first as serials, then as dime novels, and finally in clothbound form makes the bibliographer’s task even more difficult.
It is also difficult to classify Ellis’s books. Though many of them were obviously intended for a juvenile audience, mostly made up of adolescent boys, some began as adult westerns and were later marketed to a younger audience. Ellis also wrote detective stories, love stories, and at least one dime novel that would be categorized as science fiction. In the 1890’s, Ellis worked on a number of nonfiction books for children, focusing variously on history, biography, mythology, and religion, as well as on works for adults that dealt with history and current events.
For the first twenty-odd years of his writing career, Ellis remained in education, either teaching or performing administrative duties. He was vice principal of a school in Patterson, New Jersey; principal of a Trenton grammar school; and finally superintendent of education for the city of Trenton. He even served a term on the New Jersey State Board of Education. Ellis’s status as a writer and as an educator was recognized in 1887, when he received an honorary M.A. from Princeton University. Ellis spent his later years at Upper Montclair, New Jersey. He died on June 20, 1916, during a vacation trip to Cliff Island, Maine.
Although he was a patriotic and highly principled man, he knew that the public was tired of the overt didacticism that had dominated nineteenth century literature. Therefore, he focused on writing action-packed stories, often set against a historical background, that showed realistic characters in situations that would test their mettle. Instead of lecturing about heroism, he showed heroes in action, thus satisfying the needs of both adults and young people living in a rapidly changing society.