Sullivan, Maurice S., 1893-1935

Author, historian. New Jersey newspaper reporter and editor. Friend of H.L. Mencken, published articles in "American Mercury." Contracted tuberculosis; came to Southern California for health (ca. 1920). Settled in Redlands, Calif. where employed as writer, later editor, for "San Bernardino Daily Sun." Member of San Bernardino County Historical Society. Worked on novel of fur trade and published two historical works on Jedediah Smith: "The Travels of Jedediah Smith" and "Jedediah Smith; Trader & Trailbreaker" before his death (1935).

Biography

Having contracted tuberculosis, New Jersey newspaperman, essayist and friend of H.L. Mencken, Maurice Sullivan (1893-1935), left his home for California in the early 1920s. He settled at Redlands, where he worked first as a writer and ultimately an editor of the San Bernardino Daily Sun. Sullivan devoted much of the rest of his short life to researching and writing the books on Jedediah Smith upon which his reputation rests. Sullivan initiated correspondence with various members of the Smith family and gained access to primary sources which were not then in public collections. His most important discovery was an 1831 transcription of several of Jedediah Smith's journals that had been preserved by the family since the explorer's death.