Charles Warren Stoddard was born in
Rochester, New York on August 7, 1843. He was descended in a direct line from
Anthony Stoddard of England, who settled at
Boston, Massachusetts, in 1639. While he was still a child, he moved with his parents to
New York City. In 1855, the family migrated to
San Francisco, California when his father found a job at a mercantile firm. Stoddard was 11 and was immediately smitten with the city and, as he recalled, its "natural tendency to overdress, to over-decorate, to overdo almost everything". In 1857, he joined his ill brother Ned on a restorative trip to the
East Coast, where they stayed at their grandfather's farm in western New York. He returned to San Francisco to rejoin his family by 1859. Stoddard began writing verses at a young age amid the growing literary climate of California. His first published work saw print in
The Golden Era for September 1862 under the pseudonym "Pip Pepperpod". He later recalled how he clandestinely slipped his contribution into the
Era's mailbox without anyone knowing: "No member of my family suspected that I was so bold as to dream of entering the circle of the elect who wrote regularly every week for the chief literary organ west of the
Rocky Mountains". His writings were well received and were later published as
Poems by Charles Warren Stoddard. Poor health compelled him to give up his plans for a college education. He tried a career on the stage without success.
Polynesia In 1864, Stoddard visited the
South Sea Islands where he wrote
South-Sea Idyls, a series of letters he sent to a friend. This friend had them published in book form in 1873. "They are," wrote
William Dean Howells, "the lightest, sweetest, wildest, freshest things that were ever written about the life of that summer ocean," but are also exceedingly
homoerotic. Stoddard made four other trips to the South Sea Islands, and wrote his impressions in
Lazy Letters from Low Latitudes and
The Island of Tranquil Delights. Stoddard visited
Molokai several times and became well acquainted with
Father Damien–a
Catholic saint since 2009–who ministered to the
lepers there. Stoddard's
The Lepers of Molokai, according to
Robert Louis Stevenson, did much to establish Father Damien's position in public esteem. In 1867, soon after his first visit to the South Sea Islands, Stoddard was received into the
Catholic Church. He told the story of his conversion in a small book,
A Troubled Heart and How it was Comforted, of which he said: "Here you have my inner life all laid bare."
Friends In 1867, Stoddard converted to Catholicism. In 1869, he became good friends with travel writer
Theresa Yelverton. In 1873, he started on a long tour as special correspondent of the
San Francisco Chronicle. His
roving commission carried no restrictions of any kind. For five years, he traveled through Europe and went as far east as
Palestine and
Egypt. He sent considerable material to his newspaper, much of which it never printed, though some of it was among his best work. Around 1880, Stoddard served co-editor of the
Overland Monthly with
Bret Harte and
Ina Coolbrith. In 1891, Stoddard spent the summer aboard the yacht "Ramona" owned by Bohemian Club darling Harry Gillig and his wife, heiress
Aimee Crocker, sailing the Atlantic Coast. Other guests of the pleasure boat were painter
Theodore Wores, playwrights
Augustus Thomas and
Clay Greene, editor Jerome Hart, and actor
Henry Woodruff.
Notre Dame In 1885, having decided to settle down, he accepted the position of chair of the English literature department at the
University of Notre Dame. He resigned, officially citing
malaria. According to literary historian Roger Austen has written that the real reason behind Stoddard's decision was the
Catholic Church's position on
homosexuality. John W. Crowley maintains that Stoddard clashed with colleagues over his attentions to the students. The same reasons, whether limited to ill-health or also related to behavioral matters, caused him to resign a corresponding position that he held at the
Catholic University of America in
Washington, D.C. from 1889 to 1902. In a short time, he moved to
Cambridge, Massachusetts, intending to devote himself exclusively to literary work. A serious and almost fatal illness interfered with his plans. He published his
Exits and Entrances, a book of essays and sketches which he called his favorite work, probably because it told of his friendship with Stevenson and of other literary acquaintances. In April 1903, he returned to San Francisco and was the guest of honor at a welcome-home party at the
Bohemian Club with
Henry James and
Enrico Caruso in attendance. He then settled in
Monterey, California, with a hope of recovering his health, although he traveled within California and was in San Francisco during the
1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. He stayed on in Monterey, where he was diagnosed with
heart disease, until his death from a
heart attack on April 23, 1909.
Amy Sueyoshi additionally traces Stoddard's affair with Yone Noguchi through their passionate correspondence to one another. In the film
Leonie, Stoddard (portrayed by Patrick Weathers) is shown being flirtatious with the character
Yone Noguchi. ==Works==