Paul Lewis Anderson

For other people named Paul Anderson, see Paul Anderson (disambiguation).

Paul Lewis Anderson (1880–1956) was an American photographer and author who wrote young adult historical fiction focussing on ancient Rome.

Life and work

Anderson was born in Trenton, New Jersey. He graduated from Lehigh University in 1901 and worked in electrical engineering before taking up photography in 1907. He was influenced by the photographs in the magazine Camera Work. In 1910 he started working as a professional photographer. A self-taught and award-winning photographer, Anderson worked within the mainstream pictorialist aesthetic of his day. Yet at the same time, drawing upon his engineering background, he applied a methodical and experimental approach within his creative process in order to advance his artistic ideals.

Prior to World War I, he operated portrait studios in New York City and East Orange New Jersey. In 1916 and 1917, he taught at the Clarence H. White School of Photography, founded by Clarence Hudson White, 1914–1918, and published several books and articles on photography. In 1925 he started to write novels, but returned to photography writing some eight years later.

Some of his photography is displayed at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Selected bibliography

Novels

The conquest of Gaul and the figures of Caesar and his generals as well as aspects of the Roman army are presented in a personal way through the eyes of a young legionary soldier.

A young slave is confronted by the conspiracy of his master Catiline.

A stirring novel of Vercingertorix, defender of the Gauls against Caesar’s invasion. From the view point of a young Gaul with Roman associations.

Gaius, a young Roman aristocrat in Caesar’s Tenth Legion, takes part in the invasion of Britain, is captured, and designated for sacrifice by the Druids; only a British princess can save him.

Dumnorix the Aeduan, sold into slavery and given the Roman name of Pugnax, becomes a gladiator at Rome and encounters undreamed of adventures