JACOB ABARBANELL (1852-1922)

Jacob Ralph Abarbanell was born in New York City December 6, 1852. He was a son of the furrier Rudolph Abarbanell and his wife Rosalia. He entered the College of the City of New York and took his bachelor's degree in 1872. In 1874 he obtained the degree of Bachelor of Laws from Columbia College. He was married to Cornelia L. Eaton, of Jersey City, New Jersey, June 30, 1892, and died November 9, 1922. He was engaged in the practice of law in New York from 1875 until his death but at the same time wrote numerous novels, some of them under the pen names "Ralph Royal,"⁽¹⁾ "Paul Revere,"⁽²⁾ and "Harrigan and Hart."⁽³⁾ He was editor of Norman Munro's Golden Hours from 1898 to 1900 and after 1901. He wrote some plays and numerous serials and short stories in the weekly story papers, and published some translations from the German and French. His home until 1889 was in New York City, then until 1901 in Jersey City, and thereafter in Brooklyn.

Besides the one novel published by Beadle and listed below, he wrote: "My Father's Will" (play), 1881; "A Model Fair" (play), 1882; "All on Account of a Bracelet" (play), 1883; "Monte Cristo and His Wife" (novel), 1885; "Ma" (novel), 1888, dramatized 1902; "The Rector's Secret" (novel), 1892; "Haidee, Countess of Monte Cristo" (play), 1902, and as a serial in the 'Family Story Paper beginning January 3, 1903; "When the Cannon Roars" (play), 1905; and "The Heart of the People" (novel), 1908, dramatized 1909.

REFERENCES: Who Was Who, I, 1942, 1; Journalist. XV, August 20, 1892, with portrait; The Fourth Estate, XXIX, November 18, 1922.

Waverley Library (quarto). No. 39.
Waverley Library (octavo). No. 27.

Notes

1	The real name and pen name are given together in the by-line of the quarto Waverley Library, No. 39.
2	J. E. Haynes, Pseudonyms of Authors, New York, 1882.
3	In a letter, now in my possession, from Abarbanell to William J. Benners, dated August 11, 1919, he says: "I wrote Joe Dodger, also most of the Harrigan & Hart stories."