Rives

Rives names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.

Rives AMELIE, an American novelist

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

AMELIE, an American novelist, born in Richmond, Va., Aug. 23, 1863. At an early age she contributed short stories to magazines and newspapers. A series of stories composed her first book, "A Brother to Dragons." "The Quick or the Dead," a unique type of fiction first published serially in "Lippincott's Magazine," in 1890, was her first success. It was aft afterward published in book form. "According to St. John" first appeared in the "Cosmopolitan" magazine, and then in book form, in 1891. Other books by this author are "Virginia of Virginia," and "Athelwold." She became the wife of John A. Chanler in 1888. They were divorced on account of incompatibility. In 1896 she married the son of a Russian Prince, Pierre Troubetskoi, an artist. She also wrote, "Herod and Mariamne," "Witness of the Sun," "Barbara Dering," "Tanis," etc., and several plays, including "The Prince and the Pauper," based on Mark Twain's romance (1920).

Rives GEORGE LOCKHART, an American lawyer and historical writer

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

GEORGE LOCKHART, an American lawyer and historical writer, born in New York City in 1849. He graduated from Columbia University in 1868 and studied law at that university and at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1874 he was admitted to the bar and practiced in New York City for many years. From 1896 to 1902 he was a member of the Rapid Transit Railroad Commission, and was corporation counsel from 1902 to 1904. From 1887 to 1889 he served as Assistant Secretary of State of the United States. He was a student of the relations between the United States and Mexico, and published in 1913 "The United States and Mexico, 1821-1848." He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was president of the Board of Trustees of the New York Public Library. He died in 1917.

Rives ALFRED LANDON, an American engineer

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

ALFRED LANDON, an American engineer; born in Paris, France, March 25, 1830; studied at the University of Virginia; was graduated at the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees, Paris, in 1854; was assistant engineer on the completion of the National Capitol, Washington; engineer in the construction of the aqueduct in Washington; and was in charge of the United States survey for improving the Potomac river. During the Civil War he was colonel of engineers in the Confederate army. After the war he was at different times an engineer on several railroads; and general manager and superintendent of many engineering works; also chief engineer of the Cape Cod Canal. He died in 1903.

What Has Changed in the Last Century

All three men were already dead when Collier's compiled this in 1921, so their entries stand as written; the loose end is Amélie Rives, described as a living author. She outlived the encyclopedia by decades, dying in 1945 at Castle Hill in Albemarle County, Virginia, and wrote little after the 1920s. "The Quick or the Dead?", which Collier's dates to 1890 in Lippincott's (it in fact ran in 1888), was a genuine sensation that sold in the hundreds of thousands and was widely parodied; today she is read almost only by scholars of Southern and women's writing, while her poetic dramas such as "Herod and Mariamne" and "Athelwold" have vanished from the stage. George Lockhart Rives is now remembered less for his Mexico volumes than for the trusteeship that helped build the New York Public Library's Fifth Avenue building, opened in 1911.

Written for this edition, 2026.