Yda Hillis Addis

Yda Hillis 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.

As 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, assisting her father. 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 was 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. ["The San Francisco Examiner" July 28, 1887, p1, col 1.]

Before the trial date, Addis left San Francisco for Mexico City to write for the 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 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 biographries 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 newspaper owner (Santa Barbara News-Press). Addis was treated badly by both Storke and his teenage son Tommy, and she accused Storke of some peculiar intimate behaviors and violence toward her. Storke retaliated with a divorce complaint on the grounds that Addis was insane. 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 the asylum, and disappeared.

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