Yda Hillis Addis

Who is Yda Hillis Addis?

Yda Hillis Addis, was the first American writer to translate ancient Mexican oral stories and histories into English. The most widely published of her more than 100 stories are "The Romance of Ramon" and "Roger's Luck".

Addis published her Mexican oral 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, 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. While some of Addis' contemporary writers are still known today, she and her work were lost.