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Maine Writers Index - Detail (Return to List) Charles Asbury Stephens M.D. (1844 - 1931)Genre: General Fiction, Non-Fiction, Young Adult, Short StoriesStephens was born on 21 Oct. 1844 on a farm on Upton Ridge, in Norway, Maine, graduated from Bowdoin College in 1869 (putting himself through college by working and through oratory contest winnings), and taught at the Norway Liberal Institute. In 1871, he married his second cousin, Christine Newell Stephens (1846-1911), with whom he had two daughters, Edna and Janet. Both attended college and Edna later became a physician in Massachusetts. Christine Stephens worked as a teacher, club-woman and writer of short stories for various juvenile publications. Stephens' second wife, Minne Plummer from South Paris, was a well-known opera singer (Madame Scalar). The Norway Advertiser Democrat published an article on Stephens in April 1999. He died on 22 Sept 1931 in Norway, Maine. For biographical information, consult The World of C.A. Stephens by Ronald G. Whitney (1976/1996). Stephens' writing career began when he had stories about his early years published in a magazine called Our Young Folks; eventually, Stephens published over 25 articles in this magazine. When he began writing for a living, he changed his surname from Stevens to Stephens, so as not to embarrass his family should he fail. After a few years of having articles and stories published in various magazines, Stephens found a home for himself at The Youth's Companion in 1871, where he eventually became assistant editor and worked for 60 years as traveling correspondent. To facilitate writing accurate medical columns in Youth's Companion, Stephens pursued and received his Doctor of Medicine from Boston University in 1887, and later built a biological laboratory in his Norway home, a mansion near Lake Penneseewassee, across from where the entrance to Norway Lake Park is today. Stephens' keen scientific interest was in physical immortality. Stephens published over 2,500 articles and 30 books, many set in the rural Maine of the mid-nineteenth century and involving fictionalized local personalities. Often his articles were published anonymously or using pseudonyms, including Zu Behfel, Stinson Jarvis, Marcus Vanderpool, Henrietta Crosby, Charlotte H. Smith, and Charles Adams (who wrote tales about 'Waynor' Maine). Two bibliographical works, both by Louise Harris, are Comprehensive Bibliography of C.A. Stephens (1965) and Star of the Youth's Companion (1969; an annotated chronological listing of his stories). Stephens' works include:
Bowdoin College's Library Special Collections and Archives has biographical information on Stephens (most of it appears here) and a description of the 2,350 manuscripts and drafts of Stephens' books, speeches, and articles, in Bowdoin's archival collection. The Friends of C.A. Stephens was established in 1994 (the 150th
anniversary of his birth) and has each year since then had a
book of Stephens' re-published. The group has also
bought a 20 acre parcel of land located off the Greenwood
Road in Norway, believed to be Stephens' childhood
playground, the Tom's Fort location mentioned in his writing. |