Edgar Saltus

Born in New York City in 1855, Edgar Saltus became one of the few American writers closely associated with literary Decadence. Encyclopaedia Britannica describes him as a novelist who adopted the sophisticated cynicism and art-for-art's-sake spirit of the European Decadents, while Wikipedia notes that he was known for his refined prose style.

Saltus wrote fiction, essays, and philosophical works, and he is often remembered as much for style as for subject. His writing has been linked with the atmosphere and sensibility of figures such as Joris-Karl Huysmans and Oscar Wilde, giving his work a distinctive place in American literary history.

He died in New York City in 1921. Though less widely read now than some of his contemporaries, Saltus still stands out as an unusual and stylish voice: urbane, skeptical, and drawn to beauty, paradox, and dark glamour.