|
Charles Asbury Stephens Collection, 1868-1982 (1868-1931)
9.5 linear feet.
Catalog Number: M170
Series List:
|
Agency History / Biographical Note:
Charles Asbury Stephens was born in 1844 in Norway, Maine. After
graduating from Bowdoin in 1869, he taught at the Norway Liberal
Institute. He began working for The Youth's Companion in
1871, eventually becoming the magazine's assistant editor, a position
he held until his death in 1931. Stephens's fiction, including many
children's books, were mainly travel stories and reminisces of his
Maine childhood. The titles include: Camping Out, Left
on Labrador, Katahdin Camps, On the Amazon, and
the Old Squire's Farm series.
Stephens earned a doctor of Medicine from Boston University in
1887 so that he could write fair and accurate medical columns for
The Youth's Companion. He built a biological laboratory in
his Norway, Maine, home and wrote a number of books based on his
theories, experiments and research on ageing and longevity, including
Immortal Life ..., Living Matter ... and Natural
Salvation ....
Stephens married Christine Stevens, his second cousin, in 1871.
They had two daughters. After her death in 1911, Stephens married
Minnie Scalar Plummer, a native of nearby South Paris and a well-known
opera singer. He continued to do research and to write until his
death in 1931.
Scope and Content:
This collection largely consists of approximately 2,350 manuscript
and typescript drafts, with holographic corrections, of Stephens's
books, speeches, and articles (mostly undated, but ca. 1880-1931),
many for The Youth's Companion. There is also a small group
of letters (1868-1910); biographical records, certificates, and
other printed ephemera (1887-1959); manuscript covers, story ideas,
and other fragments (undated); clippings (1904-82), and two of Stephens'
manuscript notebooks donated by the Friends of C.A. Stephens. The
material is supplemented by a collection of Stephens's published
works, and by Charles Waugh's address entitled "Adrift in 3000 Stories"
in the Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection.
Provenance:
Cite as: Charles Asbury Stephens Collection, George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library.
Access Restrictions: None.
|
