was married four times and had eight surviving children. He first married in 1905 to Eloise Turner who died in November 1907. His second marriage was to Phyllis Edwards, a teacher from Richmond Virginia, whom he married in 1909 and by whom he had three children Elizabeth (Beth) born 1910, Phyllis, born 1911 and James. This son, from his second marriage, James Abbe Jr was born in 1912; he also became a photographer and later an antiques dealer and worked in the 1940s Harper's Bazaar. The marriage ended when James Abbe travelled to Italy in 1922 with a former Ziegfeld dancer, Polly Platt (née Mary Ann Shorrock), who was part of the company filming Ronald Colman and Lillian Gish in The White Sister (1923) on location in Rome and Naples for which Abbe took stills and advised on special photography. After filming was completed Abbe settled in Paris where his new wife Polly gave birth to the first of three children, Patience Shorrock Abbe on July 22, 1924, followed by Richard W. Abbe (1926–2000) and then John Abbe (born 1927). In the late 1930s, Abbe's third marriage to the former Ziegfeld dancer Polly Shorrock ended in divorce. After the failure of this marriage, he married Irene Caby, the mother of ballet dancer and dance teacher Tilly (Matilda) and Malinda (Linda) Abbe. According to a 2006 interview with his daughter, Tilly Abbe, he was married three times before he met her mother, Irene, and abandoned his third wife and three children to marry Irene. Tilly was born when her father was 56 years old, which would have been about 1939. One of the obituaries for Patience mentions that she had a surviving (presumably step-)sister Linda. Books Abbe's book I Photograph Russia was published in 1934. This work includes eighty photographs taken by Abbe. Stars of the Twenties, Observed by James Abbe, Text by Mary Dawn Earley, Introduction by Lillian Gish. (1975) London: Thames and Hudson James Abbe Photographer, texts by James Abbe, Brooks Johnson and Terence Pepper (2000) Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia Sources Jeffrey, Ian et al. (1997). The Photography Book. London: Phaidon Press Limited. References 1883 births 1973 deaths 20th-century American photographers Fashion photographers People from Alfred, Maine Artists from Maine