Edward S. Ellis

Edward Sylvester Ellis (April 11, 1840 – June 20, 1916) was an American author.

Biography.

Ellis was a teacher, school administrator, journalist, and the author of hundreds of books and magazine articles he produced by his name and several pen names. Notable fiction stories by Ellis include The Steam Man of the Prairies and Seth Jones’s The Captives of the Frontier. Internationally, Edward S. Ellis is probably known best for his Deerfoot novels, which were read widely by young boys until the 1950s.

Dime novels

Seth Jones was a prototypical early dime novel published by Beadle and Adams. It is said that Seth Jones was one of Abraham Lincoln’s favourite stories. During the mid-1880s, after a fiction-writing career of some thirty years, Ellis eventually began composing more severe works of biography, history, and persuasive writing. Of note was “The Life of Colonel David Crockett”, which had the story of Davy Crockett giving a speech usually called “Not Yours To Give”. It was a speech opposing the awarding of money to a Navy widow because Congress had no constitutional mandate to give charity. It was said to have been inspired by Crockett’s meeting with a Horatio Bunce, a much-quoted man in Libertarian circles, but one for whom historical evidence is non-existent.

Pseudonyms

Besides the one hundred fifty-nine books published by his name, Ellis’ work was published under various pseudonyms, including

• Cover of Seth Jones; or The Captives of the Frontier by Edward S. Ellis
• “James Fenimore Cooper Adams” or “Captain Bruin Adams” (68 titles)
• “Boynton M. Belknap” (9 titles)
• “J. G. Bethune” (1 title)
• “Captain Latham C. Carleton” (2 titles)
• “Frank Faulkner” (1 title)
• “Capt. R. M. Hawthorne” (4 titles)
• “Lieut. Ned Hunter” (5 titles)
• “Lieut. R. H. Jayne” (at least two titles in the War Whoop series)[8]
• “Charles E. Lasalle” (16 titles)
• “H. R. Millbank” (3 titles)
• “Billex Muller” (3 titles)
• “Lieut. J. H. Randolph” (8 titles)
• “Emerson Rodman” (10 titles)
• “Colonel H. R. Gordon” (6 titles)
• “E. A. St. Mox” (2 titles)
• “Seelin Robins” (19 titles)