Richard Henry Savage Richard Henry Savage ( June 12 , 1846 – October 11 , 1903 ) was an American military officer and author who wrote more than 40 books of adventure and mystery , based loosely on his own experiences . Savage ' s eloquent , witty , dashing and daring life may have been the inspiration for the pulp novel character Doc Savage . In his youth in San Francisco , Savage studied engineering and law , and graduated from the United States Military Academy . After a few years of surveying work with the Army Corps of Engineers , Savage went to Rome as an envoy following which he sailed to Egypt to serve a stint with the Egyptian Army . Returning home , Savage was assigned to assess border disputes between the U . S . and Mexico , and he performed railroad survey work in Texas . In Washington D . C . , he courted and married a widowed noblewoman from Germany . Savage returned to San Francisco with his wife to stay for ten years , raising a daughter and taking part in a family business . He served at the rank of colonel in the California National Guard , and took part in the social activity of the city . During a period of anti - Chinese race riots , Savage stood up for law and order , and thereby gained the respect of San Francisco ' s leaders , property holders and middle class residents . Savage traveled to many exotic lands but in 1890 he was struck with jungle fever in Honduras . While recuperating in New York state he wrote his first book : " My Official Wife " . This very successful action - and - adventure story was followed by more , at the rate of about three per year , written for the general public rather than for literary critics ; the latter were charmed by the first book but scathing of many later ones . Savage lived primarily in New York City , and was involved in lawsuits , especially against his New York publisher regarding unpaid royalties . When the Spanish – American War broke out , Savage volunteered to lead men in battle . Instead , he was given command of an engineering unit which then built a complete base in Havana . Returning to New York , he wrote more books and corresponded with his wife who traveled often to the Russian Empire to visit their daughter and her Russian husband . Four years after mustering out of the Army , Savage was knocked down and mortally wounded at the age of 57 by a horse and carriage on the streets of New York . Early life and career . Savage was born in Utica , New York , the son of Jane Moorhead Ewart and Richard Savage ( 1817 – 1903 ) , a lawyer and manufacturer whose family had lived in the Utica area for years . With the discovery of gold in California , Savage ' s father came West in 1850 . Savage and the rest of his family left New York in 1851 to join his father . They arrived in San Francisco in February 1852 . Savage was among the first boys to attend public school in the new city , along with future poet Charles Warren Stoddard and the brothers Gus , Charles and Harry de Young who would found the " San Francisco Chronicle " . While the younger Savage was in school , his father helped discover the rich silver deposits of the Comstock Lode . Savage finished high school at age 15 and began to study law with U . S . Senator James A . McDougall . Later , he studied with the law firm Halleck , Peachy & Billings , while partner Henry Halleck was back East serving as major general in the Union Army . At the start of the American Civil War Savage joined the Union Army , but his father secured his discharge on the grounds of his extreme youth . Savage ' s father used his influence to push for California to stay on the Union side , and was rewarded by President Lincoln with the post of Collector of Internal Revenue in which capacity he served between 1861 and 1873 . Through government connections , Savage ' s father gained for Savage an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1864 . Despite the danger of Confederate privateers , Savage chose to travel east by way of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company to the Isthmus of Panama , followed by the Atlantic leg to New York , but significant wartime delays prevented him from joining the summer plebes at the academy . Rather , he took his place with the September students . In 1868 , Savage graduated sixth in his class of 55 at West Point , and was assigned as brevet second lieutenant with the Army Corps of Engineers at Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco Bay . ( The " brevet " rank acknowledged that Savage was needed as a second lieutenant despite the US government limiting the number of serving army officers . ) Savage took part in survey work on the Indian reservations of Round Valley in Northern California and the Pima and Maricopa reservations in Arizona . Government and writing career . Savage performed his Army tasks but was unhappy with the narrowly defined role . He tendered his resignation on December 31 , 1870 . Through President Grant , he went to Marseilles and Rome as an American vice - consul . In 1871 , Savage traveled to Egypt to act with the rank of captain for one year as secretary to Charles Pomeroy Stone , a former American general in the Egyptian Army , serving under Khedive Isma ' il Pasha . Following an honorable discharge from the Egyptian Army , Savage returned to the U . S . and was tasked by Grant to serve as one of three commissioners investigating a series of border incidents between the U . S . and Mexico 1872 – 74 . At the same time , he worked with Richard King and the nascent Corpus Christi & Rio Grande Railroad as chief surveyor for the route to Laredo . At the German Embassy in Washington , D . C . , on January 2 , 1873 , Savage married the aristocratic Anna Josephine Scheible , a German widow three years older than he who had arrived in war - torn America in 1864 with her first husband , Gustav , to look after family - owned land in Georgia . Gustav Scheible died in 1866 and Anna became a favorite of the Washington social circle . Her marriage to Savage produced one daughter , who later married Anatol de Carriere , a minor nobleman and an Imperial Russian Councilor of State . In 1874 , Savage began a ten - year stay in San Francisco . He worked with his father and brother on an iron foundry enterprise , and served two years as colonel of the 2nd Regiment California National Guard . Savage took a prominent role in the civic and social life of the city , and was often called upon to make extemporaneous speeches to large crowds , a skill on which politician and economist Henry George complimented him . In January 1878 , Savage served as chief military executive officer of the Committee of Safety , a group set up to oppose Denis Kearney and his riotous mob of angry supporters who wanted to get rid of Chinese immigrants . Savage ' s calm and logical presence was seen by San Franciscans as a rallying point for law and order during the riots . Savage renewed the friendship of his childhood schoolmate , now Bohemian Club poet Charles Warren Stoddard . He made the acquaintance of writer Archibald Clavering Gunter , who would later publish some of Savage ' s stories . While in San Francisco , Anna Savage began a devoted interest in the fight for women ' s suffrage . Savage retired from government service in 1884 to practice law with his youngest brother . In 1890 , he moved to New York City . In late 1890 at a friend ' s house on Lake George in upstate New York , while recovering from a near - fatal case of jungle fever contracted in Honduras , Savage wrote a tale loosely based on his life , entitled " My Official Wife " . The book was a great success , and was translated into many languages . " The Times " in London called it " a wonderful and clever " tour de force " , in which improbabilities and impossibilities disappear , under an air that is irresistible . " Savage followed his first book with " Delilah of Harlem " , " The Mask of Venus " , " Our Mysterious Passenger and Other Stories " and " In the Shadow of the Pyramids " . In addition to his fiction prose output , Savage published collections of his speeches and essays , and in 1895 wrote a book of poetry dedicated to his wife : " After Many Years " . Savage ' s writing style was fast and precise : he wrote from morning to night and rarely needed to correct his first drafts . He was able to carry on a conversation while writing . He joined the Author ' s Guild of America in 1894 . Critical review . In 1893 , Savage ' s book " The Masked Venus " was scathingly reviewed in the " Overland Monthly " : Savage ' s " In the Shadow of the Pyramids " was reviewed in " The Literary World " in May 1898 . The reviewer said that Savage used " a happy mixture of audacity and ignorance quite untrammeled by facts . " The " absurd " main character was criticized as unrealistically exposed to mortal danger almost daily , " just escaping dagger thrusts and pistol shots , with results more favorable to the theatrical progress of the story than to his common sense . " The previous month in the same periodical , Savage ' s 25¢ book " For Life and Love " was dismissed as " a slap - dash romance " . Final decade . In 1896 , Savage sued his publisher for $ 12 , 000 in unpaid royalties . The publisher , Frank Tennyson Neely , who had filed for bankruptcy five years earlier before accepting Savage as a client , argued that he did not owe Savage anything , instead , Savage owed " him " . Neely ' s scattered and incomplete accounting books prevented an easy conclusion to the trial . Three years later , Neely once again declared bankruptcy . In 1899 , Abraham Lewis of Brooklyn sued Savage for $ 10 , 000 in damages , for stealing away the affections of his wife . Savage ' s own wife and a friend defended him in court , saying Lewis , an informal supplier of food to soldiers under Savage ' s command , was retaliating for being stopped from the lucrative but illegal act of selling liquor to the troops at Montauk Point . On January 3 , 1898 , Savage and his wife celebrated their 25th anniversary , in New York City . On February 16 , Savage volunteered for Army duty during the Spanish – American War . Savage would have served as lieutenant colonel of the 1st Tammany Regiment , but New York ' s Governor Frank S . Black declined the formation . Savage was instead assigned senior major of the 2nd U . S . Volunteer Engineers at the end of May . After stateside training and the building of a complete Army camp at Montauk Point , his unit traveled in November to Havana , Cuba and cleared Marianao to build Camp Columbia for the Army of Occupation . Savage hoisted the first American flag in Havana Province on December 10 . He was in command of the battalion at the surrender of Havana on January 1 , 1899 . Weakened with yellow fever , Savage was mustered out of the Volunteer Engineers in April , 1899 , and assigned captain with the 27th Volunteer Infantry . Continuing illness prevented him from traveling with his unit to the Philippines , and he was honorably discharged . In August 1903 , Savage ' s wife and daughter were in Kishinev , Russia , where Savage ' s son - in - law Anatol de Carriere was serving the Russian government . Savage ' s wife sent word through Breslau to London that 27 of the Kishinev pogrom rioters had been given prison sentences . The de Carrieres hid some 40 Jews in their house during the rioting . Anna Savage warned that if further bloody riots were encouraged by the Tsar ' s government , " the wealthy Russian aristocracy will be in danger of their lives . " Death and legacy . Savage died on October 11 , 1903 , at Roosevelt Hospital after being knocked down and injured in the ribcage on a New York City street by a horse and wagon on October 3 . Savage ' s wife and daughter were still in Europe at the time of his death . Anna Josephine Savage died at the age of 67 on July 7 , 1910 after a long illness in New York City , with her daughter at her side . For 30 years , she had been a noted supporter of women ' s right to vote . Author Marilyn Cannaday has suggested that Doc Savage , the pulp hero from the 1930s and 1940s , was based in part on Savage ' s life , or at least his name . Though he never met Savage , Henry Ralston , one of men who created the pulp character , joined Street and Smith publishers one year after a collection of Savage ' s short stories were published .