Charles Warren Stoddard

Bio

(1843-1909) Author, poet. Charles Warren Stoddard was born in Rochester, New York. While he was still a child his parents moved to New York City, where they lived until 1855. He wrote a book of poems which were edited by Bret Harte. His best known work is “South Sea Idyls” (1873), which was inspired by his travels to Hawaii and Tahiti. His journeys to foreign, exotic places (which served as the source for much inspiration) were necessitated by his poor health. After a tour to Egypt and Palestine in 1876 and 1877, he wrote “Mashallah!” (1880) and “A Cruise Under the Crescent” (1898). Living in Hawaii from 1881 to 1884, he wrote “The Lepers of Molokai,” which was believed to have prompted Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous defense of Father Joseph Damien de Veuster.