Jonathan Sturges (1864-1911)

He graduated from Princeton (1885) and in 1889 published The Odd Number, a translation of thirteen stories by Guy de Maupassant, which was an immediate success. The first edition of 1500 sold out almost immediately, as did the second edition of 1,000 is exhausted, and the third edition was being printed that December. Settling in London, Sturges wrote travel letters for The New York Times and short stories for Harper’s and Cosmopolitan. He joined a circle of friends that included Henry James, John Singer Sargent, and James Whistler, with whom he collaborated on The Baronet and The Butterfly magazines. His pastel (see images) was commissioned after his death by his sister, Mary, a copy of which hung over Henry James’s desk until his own death in 1916.