Stoddard, Charles Warren, 1843-1909

California author.

Author and professor of English, University of Notre Dame, 1885-1887.

American poet and travel writer.

Author Charles Warren Stoddard was born in Rochester, New York, and raised in San Francisco. His travels to Hawaii and the South Seas inspired South Sea Idylls, the first of several popular travel books; he also wrote poetry, and worked as a journalist and editor. A devoted traveller and pleasant companion, he was Mark Twain's secretary during his stay in London, and was friends with Ambrose Bierce, Bret Harte, Rudyard Kipling, and Robert Louis Stevenson, among many others. He also taught for short periods at Notre Dame and the Catholic University of America. A gifted writer who never completely focused his talents, Stoddard restlessly combined Catholicism with homosexuality, and some of his writings subtly explore this balancing act.

Author and educator, from San Francisco, Calif.

Charles Warren Stoddard was born on August 7, 1843, in Rochester, New York. In 1855, his family moved to San Francisco. Two years later, Stoddard went back to New York with his older invalid brother. After his return to San Francisco in 1859, he attended school for a time but soon left his schooling to clerk in a bookstore. It was there that he first began writing verses, contributing them to the local newspapers. After the establishment of the Overland Monthly, Stoddard became one of its main standbys, and his poetry appeared in almost every number. He also served as foreign correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle in the 1870's, and he taught at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and Catholic University in Washington, D.C. After a stay in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Stoddard lived in Monterey, California until his death in 1909. His works include South Sea Idyls (1873) and For the Pleasure of His Company (1903).

Biographical Information

Charles Warren Stoddard was born on August 7, 1843, in Rochester, New York. In 1855, his family moved to San Francisco. Two years later, Stoddard went back to New York with his older invalid brother. After his return to San Francisco in 1859, he attended school for a time but soon left his schooling to clerk in a bookstore. It was there that he first began writing verses, contributing them to the local newspapers. After the establishment of the Overland Monthly, Stoddard became one of its main standbys, and his poetry appeared in almost every number.

He became better known, however, as a writer of prose, particularly for his sketches picturing the beauty of the South Seas. In 1864, he made the first of his several voyages there, and this resulted in the publication of South Sea Idyls in 1873. In 1873 also, he went abroad as special correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle, traveling in Europe, Asia and Africa.

He became a Roman Catholic in 1867 and in 1884 began a teaching career as professor of English literature at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. In 1889 he took the chair of English literature at the newly founded Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. and taught there until 1902.

He then moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, intending to devote himself to creative work. An almost fatal illness sent him back to California, however, and he settled in Monterey in 1905. It was there that he died in April 1909.

Among his better known works, in addition to the South Sea Idyls, are The Lepers of Molokai, (1885); A Cruise Under the Crescent, (1898 ); In the Footprints of the Padres, (1902); For the Pleasure of His Company, (1903); and The Island of Tranquil Delights, (1904).

Charles W. Stoddard (1843-1909) was a 19th century American author. Born August 7, 1843, in Rochester, NY, he was a travel writer, poet, and journalist. Among other things, he acted as secretary-companion to Mark Twain in England in 1873, worked as an editorial writer for a Honolulu newspaper in the 1880s, and was a professor in English and American literature at the University of Notre Dame (1885-1886) and chairman of English literature at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. (1889-1902). He died in 1909 in Monterey, California.

Born in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, Francis D. Millet (1846-1912) was a respected teacher, and an academic painter and muralist known for historical genre including scenes from Alaska and Sioux Indians of Minnesota. He was President of the Guild of Boston Artists, a member of the Society of American Artists and the National Academy of Design, a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a Director of the American Academy in Rome. In addition, he sat on the advisory committee of the National Gallery of Art and was decorations director for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois in 1893. He died in the sinking of the Titanic, April 15, 1912.