Yda Hillis Addis, was the first American writer to translate ancient Mexican oral stories and histories into English. The Mexican legends that she adapted into English for The Argonaut from 1885 to 1889 are now published in the collection entitled Wicked Legends by Yda H. Addis The most widely popular of her more than 100 stories are Roman's Romance and Roger's Luck.
Early background
Addis was born in 1857 in Lawrence, Kansas, and moved with her family to Chihuahua, Mexico, at the start of the American Civil War. 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, mostly in California and Mexico, assisting her father. When she was 15, she and her family moved to Los Angeles where she graduated with the first class of Los Angeles High School; a graduating class of seven students. She also began teaching 7-year-olds.
Fiction-writing career
Addis wrote many short stories, drawn from Mexican oral sources, as well as original fiction. Her writings included ghost tales, visitations of the unseen, tragic love triangles, and stories that presaged American feminism. In 1880 she submitted her stories of heroines, such as Poetic Justice and Señorita Santos, to The Argonaut, a bi-monthly San Francisco journal, founded by Frank M. Pixley. Soon her work was appearing in other publications such as The Californian, The Overland Monthly, 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.
Travel writing
When the editors of the various journals, tabloids, and newspapers of which she was connected, discovered that she was going out of the country often they took advantage of the opportunity to employ her to write about what she discovered or experienced. Most 19th century readers were unfamiliar with her travel dispatches; her travel literature and articles have only surfaced of late. These unvarnished views of her adventures could offend some present day readers due to her 19th century vocabulary; for instance her article entitled "Queer Mexicans" modernly could raise a quizzical brow. But if one considered the evolution of the meaning of queer from strange or peculiar to the 20th century connotation, some of her words were a voyage of their own. However, Yda Addis's 19th century title was not referring to humans.
Personal life
Pixley introduced her to his good friend and former California governor John G. Downey, 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. Before the trial date, Addis left San Francisco for Mexico City to write for the bilingual 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 biographies 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 owner of the Santa Barbara News-Press. Storke was attracted to Addis for her quick mind, her good social standing and her fame as a writer. Addis, on the other hand, saw Storke as a man who could offer her financial security. They were married on September 10, 1890. Addis' history of Santa Barbara, her only book, was published in 1891. Addis said she was treated badly by her husband and his teenage son Tommy. 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. On January 24, 1894 she was involved in a trial with Cottage Hospital over the sum of $225.00 for medical treatment which she lost. On December 28, 1894 in the divorce suit of Charles Stroke vs Yda Stroke the trial was resolved in favor of the plaintiff During the divorce Addis discovered that her attorney, Grant Jackson, esq., was in duplicity with Storke. The Daily Independent reported on July 11, 1898: "Grant Jackson and Yda Addis, the present warriors of Santa Barbara, were at one time dear friends, but their hearts no longer beat as one, but corporeally speaking, they beat at each other." When Addis discovered Jackson's duplicity between him and her husband, Addis broke into his home one night, and threatened him with a gun. Two bullets were fired. Jackson overpowered Addis and called for the police, and Addis was placed in jail. She also claimed to have been married to him under a contract in January 1895. Jackson survived and she spent eight months in prison. In February 1900 she was sentenced to serve a year in the Santa Barbara County Jail in a libel case After serving 10 months she was released in May 1900 with two months credit time In June 1901 in the case of C.A. Storke vs Ada Storke order dismissing motion for new trial 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 from the asylum, and disappeared.
