Biography

Richard Henry Savage was born on 12 June, 1846, at Utica, New York, the son of Richard (1817-1903) and Jane Moorhead Savage (née Ewart). His father was a lawyer who became famous as one of the discoverers of the Comstock Lode in Nevada. During the Civil War he served in the Lincoln administration as Internal Revenue Collector and Federal Assessor. Savage's father is also remembered as one of the founders of the Californian Republican Party.

As a young boy growing up in San Francisco, Savage was among the first students there to be able to attend public school. At the age of twenty-two he graduated toward the top of his class at West Point Military Academy and soon saw service in the American West on the staffs of former Civil War generals, Henry Halleck (1815-1872), Edward Ord (1818-1883), George Thomas (1816-1870) and John Schofield (1831-1906). Between 1871 and 1872 he served as a Major in the Egyptian Army as Military Secretary to former American General Charles Pomeroy Stone (1824 -1887), who at that time was Chief of Staff and General aide-de-camp to Isma'il Pasha (1830-1895), Khedive of Egypt and Sudan. Later Savage served as American Vice-Counsel in Marseilles and Rome and was appointed to a commission investigating a border dispute between the United States and Mexico. After his retirement from government service in 1884, Savage traveled extensively carrying out geographical studies in Japan, China, Korea, Russia, Turkey, the Mid East, and Honduras. Some have suggested that the 1930s and 1940s pulp hero, Doc Savage, was at least in part based on the eventful life of Richard Henry Savage.

In civilian life Savage was a lawyer, but eventually writing became his chief occupation. Of the over 40 books he wrote, "My Official Wife", Delilah of Harlem", "The Mask of Venus", "Our Mysterious Passenger and Other Stories" and "In the Shadow of the Pyramids", a biography of Isma'il Pasha were among his most popular. Savage published some thirty volumes of prose and poetry along with several more volumes of essays and speeches culled from his many speaking engagements.

On 2 January, 1873, Savage married Mme. Anna Josephine Schible (1843-1910), a recently widowed German aristocrat. The wedding took place at the German Embassy in Washington, D.C., where Baron Schlozer, the German Ambassador, was the witness of honor for the bride. Their only child, a daughter, later married Anatol de Carriere, the Russian Imperial Councilor of State.

Savage volunteered during the American war with Spain and served with distinction in Cuba as senior Captain of the 27th U.S. Volunteer Infantry. After the war he was appointed Brigadier General and Chief Engineer of Spanish War Veterans.

Richard Henry Savage died on 11 October, 1903, eight days after a horse and wagon ran over him at the corner of 6th Avenue and 42nd Street in New York City. Ironically his 86 year old father passed away in San Francisco on the same day his son was fatally struck down.
- IMDb mini biography by: John F. Barlow