Charles Warren Stoddard

Charles Warren Stoddard (August 7, 1843, – April 23, 1909) was a pioneering California writer. He was born in Rochester, NY and during his early years his family moved to San Francisco. Stoddard quit school early to pursue a literary career and after the appearance of his first collection of poetry in 1867 (inspired by Whitman's Leaves of Grass) he converted to Catholicism. He taught to Catholic universities in the US and it was in University of Notre Dame that he ended his academic career with a resignation because of his "attentions" to some of his students.

Even though Stoddard had an adult partner (the painter Frank Millet) with whom he lived in Venice during the 1870s, he was mostly fond of youthful companions. His experiences with Hawaiian and Tahitian youth provided the backdrop for his stories in South-sea idyls (1874, 1892) and The island of tranquil delights (1904), whereas he unofficially adopted his fifteen-year-old lover Kenneth O'Connor.

Stoddard died of a heart attack on April 23, 1909.