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Adolphe Danziger De Castro, also known as Gustav Adolf Danziger, Adolph Danziger, Adolphe Danziger and Adolphe De Castro, (November 6, 1859 – March 4, 1959) was a Jewish scholar, journalist, lawyer and author of poems, novels and short stories.


Life

Adolphe Danziger De Castro was born Abram Dancygier, the son of Symcha Jakub Dancygier and Chaja Szarka, near
Dobrzyń nad Wisłą Dobrzyń nad Wisłą (; ) is a town in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland. It lies on the Vistula River in the vicinity of Włocławek. As of December 2021, the town has a population of 2,025. History Foundations The settlement of Dobrzy ...
,
Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...
. He claimed that the ancestor of the family Dancygier was a Portuguese Jew named Israel De Castro who migrated from
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...
to the
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
in the 16th century and whose descendants settled in Danzig, whence the surname Danziger originated. Danziger De Castro also claimed that he had received the rabbinical ordination by Rabbi Israel Jehoszua Trunk called 'R. Shiele Kutner' (1820–1893) around 1877 and had obtained a Ph.D. in oriental philology at the
University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...
in 1882. In 1883 he emigrated to the U.S.A., where he first lived as a journalist and teacher in
St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...
and
Vincennes Vincennes (; ) is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Vincennes is famous for its castle: the Château de Vincennes. It is next to but does not include the ...
(IN), before settling in
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
in November 1884, where he practiced as a dentist and free-lance journalist until 1900. In 1900 he moved to
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
to get a book published, abandoning his first wife and the children. In 1903-04 he served as vice-consul of the United States in
Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
. Since that time he worked as an attorney at law. In 1904-05 he lived in
Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...
, Scotland, between 1905 and 1921 in California. On February 1, 1920, he was one of the thirty-nine founders of the Sephardic Community of Los Angeles (La Comunidad Sefardi) and was elected the first president of the congregation. Between 1921 and 1926 he spent some time in
Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
, between 1927 and 1936 he lived in New York City, since 1936 in Los Angeles. He was first married in to Bertha M. Levy (b. 1867) and had the children Beatrice Danziger (1891–1974, married to William K. Dolan) and Nathan Danziger (1894–1965), who changed his name to Nathaniel Dolan. He got married a second time - without having been divorced from his first wife - in 1907 to Georgina Sterling McClellan (1880–1935) and, after his second wife's death, a third time to Maria Paez Urquidi. Adolphe Danziger De Castro died at almost 100 years in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
,
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
on March 4, 1959.


Works

Danziger translated the story "Der Mönch von Berchtesgaden" (The Monk of Berchtesgaden), by German author
Richard Voß Richard Voss (2 September 1851 – 10 June 1918) was a German dramatist and novelist. In standard German orthography, his surname is printed as Voß. Biography Voss was born on 2 September 1851, at Neu-Grape, the son of a country squire. Thou ...
, published in a German monthly magazine in 1891, into English and contracted
Ambrose Bierce Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – ) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book '' The Devil's Dictionary'' was named one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by the ...
, who supported Danziger's literary ambitions between 1886 and 1894, to edit the story. It was published as "The Monk and the Hangman’s Daughter" first in serial form in a San Francisco newspaper in 1891 and republished in book form in 1892. In 1903, he wrote the academic book ''Jewish Forerunners of Christianity'' on the Jewish Patriarchs of the 2nd Temple Period from Hillel through
Jesus Christ Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
until Rabbi Juda the Prince, the compiler of the
Jerusalem Talmud The Jerusalem Talmud (, often for short) or Palestinian Talmud, also known as the Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century Jewish oral tradition known as the Mishnah. Naming this version of the Talm ...
.
H. P. Lovecraft Howard Phillips Lovecraft (, ; August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American writer of Weird fiction, weird, Science fiction, science, fantasy, and horror fiction. He is best known for his creation of the Cthulhu Mythos. Born in Provi ...
, with whom Danziger De Castro corresponded between 1927 and 1936, revised two of his early short stories in the late 1920s; they were published in
Weird Tales ''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, printe ...
.


Partial bibliography


Essays

*"Extracts of the System of Jewish Philosophy and Religion of Maimonides", series of articles, in: ''The Jewish Voice'', St. Louis, 1888. *"The Position of Laboring Men Among the Ancient People, Especially Among the Ancient Jews in Palestine", series of articles in: ''The Jewish Voice'', St. Louis, 1888. *"The Story of Joseph, The son of Jacob: From the Legendary Lore of the Hebrews", series of articles in: ''The Jewish Voice'', St. Louis, 1889. *"The Jew in San Francisco, the Last Half Century", in: ''Overland Monthly and Out West magazine'', San Francisco: Vol. 25, No. 148, April 1895. *''Jewish Forerunners of Christianity'', New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1903 (re-issued in London: John Murray, 1904, and as ''Jesus Lived: Hebrew evidences of his existence and the rabbis who believed in him'', New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1926). *''The Sephardic movement in Spain: A present day review'', unpublished monograph (Box B-77-272, American Jewish Archives, Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati), ca. 1920s. *''All I Care to Tell'', unpublished autobiography (at the American Jewish Archives, Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati).


Novels

*''The Monk and the Hangman’s Daughter'', with Ambrose Bierce, Chicago: F. J. Schulte, 1892 (first published as serial in: ''San Francisco Examiner'', 1891). *''A Man, A Woman and A Million'', London: Sands & Co., 1902. *''Children of Fate: A Story of Passion'', New York: Brentano's, 1905. *''The Polish Baroness'', (n.p.), 1907. *''Helen Polska’s Lover, or The Merchant Prince'', (n.p.), 1908 (re-issued London, 1909).


Poems

*''After the Confession, and other verses'', Western Authors' Publishing Association, 1908. *''In the Garden of Abdullah, and other poems'', Los Angeles: Western Authors' Publishing Association, 1916. *''The Painter’s Dream'', Los Angeles, 1940. *''The Hybrid Prince of Egypt, plus, Song of the Arabian Desert'', Los Angeles: Western Authors Association, 1950.


Short stories

*''In the Confessional and The Following'', New York, San Francisco: Western Authors’ Publishing Association, 1893.


Revisions by H.P. Lovecraft

*"The Last Test", in: ''Weird Tales'', Vol. 12, No. 5, Nov. 1928 (revision of "A Sacrifice to Science", in: ''In the Confessional and the Following'', 1893) *"The Electric Executioner", in: ''Weird Tales'', Vol. 16, No. 2, Aug. 1930 (revision of "The Automatic Executioner", first published in: ''The Wave'', Nov. 14, 1891, republished in: ''In the Confessional and the Following'', 1893)


Film script

*''The World Crucified: A photoplay of the mundane activity of Christ'', 1921.


Biography

*''Portrait of Ambrose Bierce'', New York: The Century Co., 1929.


Notes


External links


"The Revised Adolphe Danziger de Castro"
(Christopher Powell)

(Christopher Powell) * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Danzigerdecastro, Adolphe 1859 births 1959 deaths 19th-century American Jews 19th-century Polish Jews American lawyers American male journalists American male non-fiction writers American people of Polish-Jewish descent American people of Portuguese descent Emigrants from Congress Poland to the United States Jewish American journalists Jewish American non-fiction writers Jewish scholars Jews from the Russian Empire People from Lipno County People from Płock Governorate Polish emigrants to the United States Polish people of Portuguese-Jewish descent