19 Sep 1914 -
MRS. FRANK LESLIE, PUBLISHER, DEAD.
Baroness de Bazus Succumbs After Six Weeks' Illness at Her Home, Aged 63.
RESCUED LESLIE ESTATE.
Publications Had $300,000 of Debts When Husband Died - Author Was Married Four Times.
Mrs. Frank Leslie, publisher, editor, and author, died last night at her home at the Sherman Square Hotel, Broadway and Seventieth Street. Mrs. Leslie had been an invalid since last Spring, when she suffered an attack of heart disease. She went to Europe for her health and returned to American [sic] two months ago only slightly improved. Shortly after her arrival she suffered another attack from which she never recovered. For the last six weeks she had been dangerously ill in her apartment, attended daily by her physician, Dr. J.E. Welsh. Miss Marguerite Linton Glentworth, the writer, was with her when she died.
The Baroness de Bazus, as Mrs. Leslie preferred to be known, was born in New Orleans, La., in 1851. Before her first marriage the Baroness was Miss Marian [sic] Florence Folline. She was of an old French Huguenot family, directly descended from Philip Picot. Her father gave her a liberal education at his home, tutoring her principally in the languages, French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Latin. At the age of 13 she began writing for publication, and her work attracted some attention, notably that of Henry Carter, who was universally known by his pen name of Frank Leslie.
She married Mr. Leslie, and when he died in 1880, leaving his estate $300,000 in debt and his sixteen publications in the hands of trustees, his wife under the law assumed the name of Frank Leslie and took personal charge of the business.
At the outset of her business activity, Mrs. Leslie was drawn into the courts, becoming the principal in seventeen successive lawsuits, all of which she won. By constant effort she put the publication business on a paying basis, leased it to a syndicate, and left America for an extended tour of Europe. When she returned to this country she found the business again disorganized, and once more made it a success by her personal management.
In 1902 she sold all of her publication interests, and it was then that she abandoned the name of Frank Leslie, taking for it that of the Baroness de Bazus, a title that had been in her family in France since the time of Saint Louis. Upon assuming the title she transferred her residence to Normandy, where she restored one of the old family castles and attempted to make it her home. Her venture was unsuccessful, however, and after a few years she returned to New York. She made her residence at the Sherman Square Hotel in recent years, and wrote exclusively for European publications.
On Oct. 4, 1891, Mrs. Leslie married William C. Kingsbury Wilde in this city. Mr. Wilde was a brother of Oscar Wilde, the poet. He was Mrs. Leslie's fourth husband. On June 11, 1893, she obtained an American divorce from Mr. Wilde. Mrs. Leslie's other husbands were David Charles Peacock and Ephraim George Squier, at one time United States Minister to Peru. Both of these marriages preceded her marriage to Frank Leslie. Mrs. Leslie was divorced from Mr. Peacock and Mr. Squier.
Before the death of her first husband the Baroness de Bazus made a transcontinental tour that was the basis for much of her subsequent literary work. The titles of some of her works were "From Gotham to the Golden Gate," "Itza, the Unexplored Regions of Central America," "Rents in Our Clothes," and "Are We All Deceivers?" She also translated many French, Spanish, and Italian articles and poems.
