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Adolph de Castro, author of "The Last Test" and "The Electric
Executioner," is 74 years old, a graduate of Bonn, and master of 7
languages. He has had published work of undoubted importance. Some of
his unpublished books are of great potential interest and value....
He lived in Mexico from 1922 to 1925 and had interviews with Villa
and his generals in 1923; from whom he derived an account of the
end of his associate and colleague Ambrose Bierce at the hand of
these revolutionists. There are three slightly differing reports as
to Bierce's death, all of which are probably carelessly transmitted
variants of the actual facts. De Castro's original name is Gustav
Adolf Danziger--he changed it during the World War, taking the name
of a remote Spanish ancestor. He came to America in 1886 and was a
dentist for a long period. Also pursued politics to some extent and was
American consul at Madrid for a time. The piece of work he did with
Bierce was translating the German novel of Richard Voss--"The Monk and
the Hangman's Daughter." He was German-speaking and (1889) was not
fluent in English. Bierce, on the other hand, was a master of English
but knew no German. De Castro--or Danziger--admired the Voss novel and
made a rough translation, with certain modifications, into such English
as he knew. Then Bierce took that crude translation and made the
present admirable English novelette out of it. The book as it stands is
a curious three-man job. It is not a weird tale.
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