Manuscript is a gift of the author and was donated to the Augusta-Richmond County Library, ca. April 30, 1962. Mrs. Mary Ann Cashin. Marshall, Edison Tesla. Dictionary of Georgia Biography Vol. 2 ed. Kenneth Coleman and Charles Stephen Gurr Athens: The University of Georgia Press p. 690-691 MARSHALL, EDISON TESLA, Author, Born Rensselaer, Ind., 28 August 1894; died Augusta Ga., 30 October 1967. Son of George Edward and Lillie Bartoo Marshall. Married Agnes Sharp Flythe, 4 January 1920. Children: Edison T. and Nancy Silence. Education: University of Oregon (1913-15) Honorary degree: University of Oregon, M.A. (1941) Edison Tesla Marshall’s father was a newspaper publisher in Rensselaer until he moved the family to Oregon when Edison was thirteen. The father’s venture into fruit growing in Oregon was not financially successful. Edison in later life remarked that he resolved then that whatever he did in life, he would make a bountiful living. From 1913 to 1915 Edison attended the University of Oregon, where he majored in journalism. While he was a freshman there he sold his first story to Argosy. Marshall’s writing was interrupted in 1918 when he served in the United States Army as a public-relations officer. That and a short summer stint as a reporter were the only salaried jobs he said he had in life. Marshall returned to his typewriter in 1919 and produced “The Elephant Remembers,” a widely read short story that appeared in a number of school textbooks. In 1920 Marshall married Agnes Sharp Flythe of Augusta, Ga., whom he had met while we was stationed at Camp Hancock in Augusta. They called their Augusta home Breetholm (bright woods). For twenty years Marshall wrote short stories and serials for magazines. His works in American, Good Housekeeping, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan and Reader’s Digest were read by millions. In 1921 Marshall’s “Heart of Little Shikara” was awarded a prize as the best short story of the year by the O’Henry Memorial Commission. In 1941, Marshall, now financially secure, attempted the first of his historical novels, Benjamin Blake. It was an immediate success, and a best seller in the United States, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark. The novel was made into a movie, Son of Fury, starring Tyrone Power. After Benjamin Blake, Marshall produced almost a novel a year, totaling forty-nine. Marshall was above all a storyteller of adventure. His residence in Augusta was interrupted by frequent hunting expeditions in foreign lands. Many of his works were set in the areas he visited: Africa, Alaska, China, and India. Trophies of Marshall’s big game hunts decorated his home in Augusta. Marshall’s answer to critics of his works was that most of his books made the best-seller list. He wrote to be read. His works were translated into nine foreign languages and a number of his novels were made into films. Marshall realized an early ambition: as he put it, “fifty years of making a good living from my pen alone with no other gainful occupation.” The University of Miami awarded Marshall the order of merit for distinguished leadership in the writing of fiction. Year after year he appeared in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who International. When Marshall died in 1967, his obituary in the New York Times summarized his career by saying that he was foremost in the field of historical novels in the 1940s and 1950s. (see entry for bibliography)