Document Type

Book

Publication Date

1977

Abstract

Charles Warren Stoddard (1843-1909) was a personable San Francisco bohemian with a flair for precious poetics and a gift for describing Western and foreign locales. He became the friend of distinguished writers both regionally and internationally known, but he also became a self-indulging old sybarite who neglected his great literary talent. He is best known for his brilliant South-Sea Idyls, Mashallah!, The Lepers of Molokai, A Troubled Heart, In the Footprints of the Padres, The Island of Tranquil Delights, and several shorter works, and also for his friendship with such diverse personalities as Ina Coolbrith, Prentice Mulford, Mark Twain, Father Damien, and Robert Louis Stevenson. At his best, he deserves comparison with Lafcadio Hearn, Pierre Loti, Bret Harte, and John Henry Cardinal Newman. If his weaker works should be forgotten, his personality and kindnesses to others, especially his California friends, should never be.

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