Saltus

Saltus, EDGAR, an American author, born in New York City, 8th June 1858, studied at Paris and in Germany, and in 1880 graduated at Columbia College law-school. His writings include a good biography of Balzac (1884); a history of Pessimistic philosophy—The Philosophy of Disenchantment (1885), and The Anatomy of Negation—both treated with a curious whimsical briskness and humour; and a series of striking stories, full of an odd passionate materialism and biting cynicism, painful, but original and clever, though disguised by a fantastic style and eccentric vocabulary—Mr Incoul's Misadventure (1887), The Truth about Tristrem Varick (1888)—these two the best—Eden (1888), A Transaction in Hearts (1889), and The Pace that Kills (1889).