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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.〔Stark Family Association, United States Military Academy. (Annual Reunion, June 14th, 1904. Richard Henry Savage. No. 2224, Class of 1868. ) pp. 111–120. Retrieved on July 27, 2009.〕 The 1848 finding of gold in California, prompted Savage's father to join the California Gold Rush 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''.〔Stoddard, Charles Warren. ''Pacific Monthly'', December 1907. ("In Old Bohemia: Memories of San Francisco in the Sixties" ). Retrieved on July 26, 2009.〕 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.〔〔Cullum, George Washington; United States Military Academy. (''Biographical register of the officers and graduates of the U.S. Military Academy'' ), Houghton, Mifflin, 1891, p. 108.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Richard Henry Savage」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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