Edward Sheldon

Edward Brewster (Ned) Sheldon (Chicago, Illinois, February 4, 1886 – April 1, 1946, New York City) was an American dramatist. His plays include Salvation Nell (1908) and Romance (1913), which was made into a motion picture with Greta Garbo.

After becoming ill at age 29 with crippling rheumatoid arthritis, which eventually claimed his sight (around 1930), Sheldon became a source of emotional and creative support for his many friends, including such luminaries of the literary and theatrical world as Minnie Maddern Fiske (he wrote Salvation Nell for her), Julia Marlowe, John Barrymore, Thornton Wilder, Alexander Woollcott, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Ruth Gordon, Helen Hayes and many others. While in hospital his advice was received by those in the theatrical profession as gospel.

In May 1915 Sheldon narrowly missed sailing on the Lusitania's infamous last voyage. He had been asked by theater impresario Charles Frohman to accompany him to England. A Harvard classmate of Sheldon's was getting married on May 11 and asked Sheldon to be best man. Sheldon then declined Frohman's offer.

Edward Sheldon (translator)

Edward Sheldon (born at Beoley, 23 April 1599; died in London, 27 March 1687) was an English translator of Catholic works.

Life

Sheldon was the third son of Edward Sheldon of Weston, Warwickshire and Elizabeth Markham his wife, daughter of Thomas Markham of Ollerton, Nottinghamshire. The antiquary Ralph Sheldon was his nephew. He was a gentleman-commoner at Gloucester Hall, Oxford and then pursued a legal education at Gray's Inn, London, before completing his studies at University College, Oxford. After that he took a foreign tour lasting some years.

Sheldon married Mary (or Margaret) Wake, daughter of Lionel Wake of Pedington, Northamptonshire, and Antwerp, by whom he had nine sons and four daughters. Most of them became active as Catholics and/or Royalists. Two daughters, Frances and Katharine, were maids of honour to Charles II's wife, Catherine, to whom Sheldon dedicated his "Counsels of Wisdom", "Being desirous in these distracted times to offer something that is serious, and may invite People and direct them to the way of Virtue." One of the copies in the Bodleian Library had been given to the antiquary Anthony Wood by Frances Sheldon.