Paul Eldridge

Who was Paul Eldridge?

Paul Eldridge was an American poet, novelist, short story writer and teacher. The son of Leon and Jeanette Eldridge, he was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 5, 1888. He later married a fellow writer, Sylvette de Lamar. He received his B.S. from Temple University in 1909, his M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1911, 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. He was a lecturer on American Literature at the Sorbonne in 1913 and at the University of Florence in 1923. 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.

He is best known for collaborating with the American decadent novelist and poet George Sylvester Viereck 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.