Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1895-10-23
AMELIE RIVBS CHANLER.

The Famous Novelist's Career Her divorce
and Her Numerous Eccentricities'
The recent divorce secured by Amelie
Rives Chanler from her husband, John
Armstrong Chanler, upon the ground OF
incompatibility Of temper, was quite
surprise to the literary world, but had
long been anticipated in fashionable
New York and Virginia society. Friends
and relatives of the couple were aware
that they had not lived together for two
years and surmised that il would be
only q matter Of a short time before the
intensely practical lawyer and the ro-
mantle, imaginative, impractical and
somewhat effected novelist would agree
to disagree according to law. Her love
Of startling effects was one reason, II Is
said, that led TO the estrangement. In
Paris she always insisted upon being
attended by a very large, very fat and
very black negress.
Her everyday life, it IS averred by
her society friends, was fully as star
Ting and sensational as her books, the
best known of which is The Quick or
the Dead?" novel said to have been
founded upon the c0ur,ship Of the au-
thor and young John Chanler There
was nothing commonplace about her,
nothing ordinary. She was always the
ecentr.c young genius, fascinating 10
the occasional beholder because Of her
originality and piGuancy, but a trihe
wearying perhaps to those constantly
and intimately associated with her.
Amelia Riyes began life under very
favorable auspices and has always been
the child of wealth, culture and refine
ment Her grandfather was William
Cabell Rives, United States Senator and
minister to France. Her father was
Colonel Alfred Landon Rives, civil
engineer, born in Paris and godchild of
Lafayette, and her mother was Miss
MacMurdo, 4 granddaughter of Bishop
Moore Of Virginia. Amelia was born in
Richmond IN 1868, and her early years
were passed with her grandfather at
Castle Hill in Albemarle county, Vir-
ginia. She never went 10 school, but
was guided in her eager quest OF knOwl-
edge by gOYernesses. She was strange
child, and other children could not love
her or understand her.
In her earliest teens she was thor
oughly cOnyersant with the worlds best
literature and was writing sonnets.
short stories and poetic tragedies at the
age Of 10. Her cousin, Thomas Nelson
Page, saw some Of her manuscript and
pronounced her a genius. Her first
story. A Brother to Dragons" was
published in the Atlantic Monthly and
was regarded as a remarkable effort.
In 1856 Lippencott's Magazine brought
out The Quick or the Dead?" which
proved to be the literary sensation of
the year. The book was a whirlwind
of passion and caused as much talk as
the late popular favorite, "Trilby."
All manner Of stories, many of them
thor were published far and wide. and
her work was in extraordinary demand
A New York weekly paper paid her
$1,000 for a single poem of 105 stanZas,
or at the rate OF a little over $3.50 q
word. The leading magazines publish
ed her prose and poetry, and then she
married Jack Chanler, one of the rich
REORGANIZATION of the original
John Jacob Aston and the hero of THE
Quick or the Dead?" He was a rising
young lawyer of energy, and force of
character, noted as a society man and
club freQuenter and enjoying an in
come of about $4,000 year.
Pleased by the furore she had caused,
but somewhat shocked and hurt by the
criticisms that branded her asian erotic
writer, the young novelist removed to
Paris and for a time devoted herself to
art and sculpture An attack of the
grip made her an invalid for a time,
and she has never fully recovered her
earlier health and beauty. She did
very creditable work in art, and several
of her paintings and sculptures were
exhibited abroad Her last novel,
"Tanis. the Sand Digger" was publish
ed by Town Topics. New York, a some
what surprising fact when it is remem-
bered that a few years ago the leading
magazines of the country were Outbid-
ding one another for her work. She is
now at her old home, Castle Hill, as
happy with her thOrOughbreds, her
dogs and her faithful negro servants as
a young woman of genius can well be
to whom marriage has proved failure.