Charles Warren Stoddard Timeline: August 7, 1843 - present

A Chronology of the Life and Works of Charles Warren Stoddard, and the Works About Him

This timeline was compiled by Claude M. Gruener in great part from an excellent biography, Genteel Pagan, The Double Life of Charles Warren Stoddard by Roger Austen, published in 1991 by The University of Massachusetts Press. Those seeking a more thorough retelling of Stoddard's life should read Austen's book.

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1843, August 7

Stoddard is born in Rochester, NY, to Samuel Burr Stoddard and his wife, Sarah Freeman. Charles has two older siblings, Ned and Sarah, and two younger brothers, Sam and Frederic Church. Over the years, the family was usually in financial difficulty, sometimes just a few steps from the poorhouse.

1854

Stoddard’s father gets job in San Francisco and the family moves there. The San Francisco area is to be Stoddard’s off and on-again home until his death. On the steamer to San Francisco via Nicaragua, a journey that took several weeks, Stoddard catches sight of his first tropical island. Thus begins his love of the tropics.

1857, January 4

Stoddard, 14, and Ned, 17 go via steamer to New York City, a 92-day voyage. They head to Little Valley, NY, where his mother’s father, Grandpa Freeman, had a farm. Charles lives in an intensely religious atmosphere but manages to visit his more “worldly” grandfather Stoddard in Pembroke, NY. Ned returns to California. Stoddard, rather gangly and skinny, attends Randolph Academy and is attracted to Fred, a "mezzo-tinted" and picturesque Spanish type." Fred, unfortunately, leaves the Academy but soon Charles is in love with another unnamed student. Becomes chums with Richard Waite and Edgar Montgomery. Is removed from school by Grandpa Freeman who thinks he needs to be "saved." In the insightful "Hearts of Oak" written some 15 years later, he models Paul Rookh, the 12-year-old bookish character facing manhood and attracted to other men, after himself.

1858, Fall

Attends the Genesee and Wyoming Seminary in Alexandria, NY. Is chums with Edgar Montgomery and Richard Waite, in whose barn they play. Small for his age, he is targeted by bullies. Edits school paper. Grandpa Freeman, however, removes him from school and sends him back to San Francisco. Spends time in New York waiting for the ship, devours the sights and sounds of the city, and attends the theatre where he sees Laura Keene and James Wallack. He has been away from San Francisco for two years. Heads back via Panama.

Year?

Back in San Francisco, Stoddard finds a changed city populated by mostly men, aged 20-40, who Stoddard writes are "easy going, witty, hospitable, lovable, inclined to be unmoral rather than immoral...and easy to meet and know." page 16. Reads a new book at the library, "Leaves of Grass." Stoddard does not want to go to high school and gets a job in Chileon Beach's Bible-centered bookshop, a position he holds for more than two years. Submits poetry to a new monthly magazine, Golden Era, as Pip Pepperpod. Through the Golden Era he meets many other literari including writer Charles Henry Webb, Fitz Hugh Ludlow, author of The Hasheesh Eater; actor Ralph Keeler; and Prentice Mulford,known as the "Diogenes of the Tuolumne." He also became friends with Adah Menken, a friend of Walt Whitman and actress; and actress Ada Clare. The three most important people he met, however, were Ina Coolbrith, Bret Harte, and Mark Twain. Each was to play and important part in his life.

1863-1864

Goes to Brayton Academy in Oakland where he realizes he will never succeed as a student. Lives off campus but walks by dorms at night and fanticizes about the men inside. Meets a classmate whom he describes to W.D. Howells in an 1892 sketch called "The Spell-binder" as "little less than Godlike." The relationship does not progress beyond the guy taking a match from him to light a cigarette and then move on without even a thank-you. After this and many other disappointments over the years,Stoddard came to expect rejection and suffering from those he adored.

1864, August

A nervous wreck at 21, Stoddard drops school and sails to Hawaii for a six-month stay. The trip is a turning point. Meets Charles Derby, the 38-year-old manager of the Royal Hawaiian Theater. In "The Drama in Dreamland" he writes of the eccentric. Also meets Enoch Wood Perry, an American painter, during a tour of the island of Hawaii. They stay at the Protestant Mission House in Hilo where he enjoys watching nearly naked boys swim in a nearby stream. There he meets Kane-Aloha." They become inseparable. Perry tries to chaperone them on a horseback trip, but the two get "lost" and escape him for two days and nights. Kane-Aloha, who enjoys going around naked, is now his "loving man" and they "trangressed the unwritten law."

1865

Decides to give Brayton Academy another try. By the end of the year he leaves. 30 Gets involved with Bohemians in San Francisco and meets dashing and "swarthily handsome" Samuel Wylde Hardinge who has the "physique of a trained athlete" and exuded "magnetism." Hardinge becomes a Union Navy lieutenant and later marries, Belle Boyd, who was a Confederate spy. In December, four of Stoddard's poems appear in "Outcroppings," the first anthology of California verse. Edited by Bret Harte, it was ridiculed by one reviewer as being "effeminate." Sends poetry to variousk people he thinks might be sympathetic. Herman Melville replies that he was "quite struck" by one.

1866

Encouraged by Harte, he decides to have a book of his poems published. 34 The 1867 volume of 45 poems is illustrated by his friend William Keith and published by Anton Roman, who advises him to get out of town for a while after publication to avoid critical comments, of which there were many, of the work. Walt Whitman does not comment and Stoddard tries to connect with him through John Burroughs who had published a biography of Whitman. Any Stoddard worships men as he does."

1867, November 2

Feeling hurt and depressed after reaction to his poems, he needs comfort and is baptized at Saint Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco.

1868, March 15

Lives in Oakland. in a hotel, makes theatrical debut as priggish Arthur Apsley in The Willow Copse. Buddies around with writers Joaquin Miller and Ambrose Bierce.

1868, October

Sails to Honolulu where he stays for eight months, compiling notes to later make into articles. Travels to various Hawaiian islands and meets Kana-ana, Joe of Lahaina and other young natives with whom he has sexual relations.

1869, July

Returns to San Francisco. Submits story on Kana-ana to the Overland Monthly magazine.

1870, Spring/Summer

While in San Francisco he meets actor Eben Plympton, and writers Theodore Dwight and Bayard Taylor, both of whom later write tales about intimacy between men. Sails for Tahiti and returns November of the same year. Socializes with the “Bohemian” crowd. He writes an autobiographical novella, Hearts of Oak.

1872, February 10

Sails for Samoa via Hawaii, but after a frightening cruise in bad weather with the captain joking about the ship possibly sinking, makes it only as far as Hawaii.

1872, Summer

He returns to San Francisco and joins the newly formed “Bohemian Club”.

1873, Fall

His account of his trip to Hawaii, “South-Sea Idyls”, is published to generally favorable reviews and its allusions to homosexual relations are generally missed by readers.

1873, October 13

Stoddard arrives in London. Takes six-week position as Mark Twain’s “companion-secretary.” Stays with Prentice Mulford.

1874, January

Sees Mark Twain off in Liverpool, stops in Chester and has a chance enounter and becomes attached to Robert William Jones. (Bob Jones later beseiges Stoddard with passionate letters.) In London, moves in with three other men on Charlotte Street as a "community of confirmed stags." One is Wallis Mackay, a “Punch” magazine artist, who was to illustrate “Summer Cruising in the South Seas,” a British re-issue of “South-Sea Idyls.” There was also a drama critic and an actor (unnamed). The foursome banned women and there was a great deal of often drunken, mutual affection.

1874

Stoddard visits Joaquin Miller in Rome. Miller says Stoddard is on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

1875, May

Thinks about becoming a monk. Acquainted with William Graham, Randolph Rogers and Charles Carrol Coleman, American bohemians living in Rome. Meets Julia (Dudee) Fletcher. Keeps writing for Overland Monthly and San Francisco Chronicle. Articles include “Interviewing the Pope” and “The Theaters of Rome.”

1874, June

Is thrown from a horse while riding with two Italian youths, shattering his left forearm. Remains in hospital after surgery until July.Cannot fully bend that elbow for the rest of his life. Visits Loreto and meets Father John, a boxer and fencer who Stoddard describes as “quite unnecessarily good looking”. The visit makes Charles think again about becoming a monk.

1874, November

Meets 28 year-old Francis Davis Millet at the opera in Venice.

1874-1875, Winter

Lives with Millet in Venice. Writes articles for the San Francisco Chronicle including “The Gayeties of Venice,” and “Venetian Vignettes.”

1875, February

Takes a three-week tour of northern Italy with Millet as his guide and “companion-in-arms.” They visit towns including Padua, Florence, Siena, Pisa, Genoa and Milan. Back in Venice, the two enjoy the social life and other Bohemians there.

1875, Spring

While living with Millet, meets A.A. Anderson, “an American artist whose beauty and wealth were noteworthy” and who in a later article Stoddard dubbed “Monte Cristo.” Millet is now less interesting to Stoddard and after Anderson leaves Venice, Stoddard decides to go via Paris to Britain, in part to see Bob Jones. Stoddard fails to meet Millet in London. Stoddard returns to Chester where Jones lives and moves in with Jones during his stay there. Travels with a wealthy Mrs. Moore as her traveling companion to Ireland and Scotland.

1875, August

Rid of Mrs. Moore, he visits Ambrose Bierce in London, then goes on five-month tour of Western Europe, supported by a a check from the San Francisco Chronicle. Visits Ostend, Brussels, Cologne, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Berlin, Dresden, Vienna and Munich. Writes articles on his travels for the Chronicle.

KATZ EDIT UP TO HERE

1875, October

In Munich lives with artists Joseph Strong and Reginald Birch, two Americans. Stoddard falls for Birch. He stops writing to Millet who complains. Moves to the Latin Quarter in Paris and sees A.A. Anderson.

1876, January-July

Tours eastern Mediterranean including Cairo, Jerusalem, Syria, Damascus, Beirut, Athens and Stamboul.

1876, July

Returns to Venice. Millet gone. Seeks unsuccessfully to be a consulate with help of Mark Twain and W.D. Howells. Travels to Naples, Capri and Sicily for new material for his writings.

1877, Spring

A.A. Anderson now married, lives in Paris. Stoddard decides to reconnect with Millet there, but Millet leaves soon to cover the Russo-Turkish War.

1877, July

Running out of money Stoddard takes farewell tour of Europe and visits Venice and northern Italy, Naples, Marseilles, Lourdes, Paris, London and Liverpool where he sails for Philadelphia.

1877, August

Arrives there and lingers three months in the East. Stays with Joaquin Miller who has written a hit play “Danites in the Sierras.”

1877, Fall

While staying at “Eagleswood Park” in Perth Amboy, NJ, as a houseguest of a friend, Mrs. Jenny Johns, Stoddard starts corresponding with Father Daniel Hudson at Notre Dame, the editor of Ave Maria. Offers to contribute to the paper. With Father Hudson’s encouraging reply, a relationship was begun that had enormous impact on Stoddard’s life and lasted over thirty years.

1878, March

Heads back to San Francisco where he lives at 42 Hawthorne Street with his almost destitute parents and brother. Becomes fond of William Woodworth.

1878, Summer

Goes with “Willie” on camping trips and returns to San Francisco in fall. With money from columns and pieces in the Chronicle, Atlantic, Scribner’s and the Ave Maria, Moves to 3 Vernon Place in a room he describes in his book, “For the Pleasure of His Company.” Involved in Bohemian Club and is estranged from Bierce who has come to dislike Stoddard’s lifestyle.

1879-1880, Winter

Becomes friends with a sickly and poor Robert Louis Stevenson. Stevenson marries in spring of 1880..

1880-1881

Chronicle stops his column so he pawns some of his possessions and heads back to the family home. His parents then move to Hawaii. Stoddard tries to commit suicide in February, 1880. Gets offer from Honolulu Saturday Press to write articles so moves there to place he calls “Spook Hall.”

1882, Summer

Spook Hall closes and work with Press stops on October 31.

1882, September 2

Moves to “Stag-Racket Bungalow” on Nuuanu Street with three young, fairly wealthy bachelors, all extroverted heterosexuals. Falls in love with Charles Deering there, his new “Kid” and lovingly decorates his room, but his love not returned. Meets flamboyant Leverette Doyle but is warned by friends not to be seen in his company. Dedicates "Hawaiian Life, being Lazy Letters from Low Latitudes", published in 1894, "to Polo, Bud, Momona and The Kid, of Stag-Racket Bungalow Honolulu, Hawaii, this Souvenir of their sometime Pal, with his Aloha!"

1883, Summer

Starts writing his autobiographical novel but is afraid of telling “the truth.” Abandons project.

1884, March

After three months in San Francisco, returns to Honolulu. Writes “A Trip to Hawaii” basically a travelogue with photographs for a steamship company. Visits his family at Waihee.

1884, Fall

Supported by long-time friend, Father Hudson of Notre Dame, Stoddard writes “A Troubled Heart and How It was Comforted at Last,” the story of his conversion to the Catholic Faith. Stoddard dedicates the book to Father Hudson with the words "This autobiography is lovingly inscribed." The book appears serially in Ave Maria and then is published by a Notre Dame publisher.

1885, July

Returns to the Bungalow. In background, Father Hudson is working behind the scene for Stoddard to become a faculty member in a “Belles Lettres” course at Notre Dame.

1885, October 6

Stoddard visits Molokai leper colonies. Writes “The Lepers of Molokai.””

1885, October 11

Back in Honolulu. Stays at the Bungalow while waiting with much trepidation for a confirmation letter from Notre Dame which arrives October 22. Wonders if he can measure up to the discipline, self and otherwise.

1885, January

Accepts position and arrives on Notre Dame campus. Makes remarks about attractive students, particularly Charles Porter and then Tom Cleary from Kentucky, both of whom come to his room.

1885, Summer

During summer vacation travels to Alaska with Father John Zahm, a physical science instructor.

1885-1886

School year begins in fall. Cleary’s mother invites Stoddard for Christmas. Stoddard warned by some at Notre Dame about his relationship with Cleary and other students.

1886, June

Cleary and Stoddard leave Notre Dame under fire with Stoddard protesting the university’s stance on same-sex friendships. In The Catholic Encyclopedia, Stoddard is said to have left both Notre Dame and his position later at the Catholic University because of ill health. They live with Cleary’s mother in Covington, KY for two years. Stoddard joins group of Bohemian artists in nearby Cincinnati.

1887-1888

Stoddard gets malaria and is cared for by the Clearys. Feels better by February and goes to Boston as guest of Theodore Vail, president of the Metropolitan Telephone and Telegraph Company of New York. Stoddard sails with the Vails up and down the New England coast. He’s asked by Vail’s wife to travel with her and her son to Europe, all expenses paid.

1888, August

Visits friends in Boston including W.D. Howells and Theodore Dwight, an old San Francisco friend who has a similar interest in men. Dwight is cataloguing papers for the Adams family in Quincy.

1888, Mid-August

Boards steamship for Bremen but is not pleased with being closely watched by Mrs. Vail. Begins writing his “mild adventures” for the Ave Maria, called “Letters from Over the Sea.”

1889, March

Visits Italy with the Vails: Florence, Venice and Rome. Meets John J. Keane, rector of the new Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. who offers him a chair in English literature. He accepts. Spends last two weeks in England and is able to see Frank Millet who has been married 10 years now with three children and living in Broadway. Stoddard also wanted to meet Edwin Abbey and other artists living nearby.

1889

Sails for New York and immediately heads to Covington to prepare his lectures for the November, 1889 opening of the university.

1889

Arrives in Washington to lodgings at Caldwell Hall. While enjoying cultural life there, he’s successful in lecturing and gets raise. Through friend Henry Adams meets artist John LaFarge and Theodore Roosevelt along with other writers. Travels to New York, Maine and Massachusetts on vacations. Dwight introduces him to photographs of naked men by Pluschow and von Gloeden he has smuggled past customs into the country from Germany and England. Stays every summer with Dwight in Boston “in the midst of a homosexual milieu.”

1892

Completes autobiographical novel he had begun earlier.

1892, Fall

Scribners issues new edition of “South-Sea Idyls” to generally good reviews.

1892, October

Meets Kenneth O’Connor, a 15-year-old waif and sometimes neer-do-well who likes girls and boys.

1893-1895

During vacations and holidays visits Woodworth in Maine, Millet and Joe Strong at the Chicago Exposition, Father Pace in Florida, old Bohemian Club members in San Francisco and friends in Massachusetts.

1895?

Moves out of Caldwell Hall and with O’Connor to 300 M Street. Stoddard lavishes gifts on him and characterizes himself as a “savior rather than a seducer” to concerned friends. Calls their home the “Bungalow” or “Saint Anthony’s Rest.” Hires Jules, a French man-servant.

1895

At Catholic University, Stoddard is a Professor of English literature and posseses an honorary Doctorate of Letters granted by the university. He’s not worried about a new accomplished professor of English who soon works in the background against him.

1897

Mostly stays in Washington with Ken. Goes to Nahant as guest of Henry Cabot Lodge. Visits New Jersey. Is “best of friends” with Rudyard Kipling. Kipling takes an interest in his autobiographical novel and suggest the title be changed from “So Pleased to Have Met You” to “For the Pleasure of His Company.”

Date?

Visits Philadelphia. Meets art student Ned McGeorge and De Witt Miller who “collected books and young men.” Stoddard travels to Nantucket and Tuckernuck Islands, south of Cape Cod and meets William Sturgis Bigelow, who owns a rambling and lavishly furnished house called “Tuckanuck.” Only men are invited to visit. Stoddard meets and falls for sometime poet George Cabot Lodge, the son of the Senator, who was called “Bay.” Meets Yone Noguchi, a friend of Joaquin Miller from San Francisco. Noguchi later dedicates a book of poems to Stoddard. Both later get married. Ken enlists in the Spanish-American War, perhaps to escape Stoddard. He returns at age 21 and Stoddard realizes it is over between them.

1901

While Stoddard in hospital suffering from malaria and the grippe, Ken brings someone home and has relationships with others and his own “Kids.”

1901, November

The University decides to fire Stoddard as the professor of English has evidently been working behind his back to get Stoddard’s classes considered “electives” which resulted in too few students picking them.

1902, January 1

Stoddard starts to dismantle the “Bungalow.”

1902, Summer

Leaving Washington, Stoddard goes to North Adams, MA, Nantucket and Tuckanuck. Returns to Washington at the O’Connor house. Hears that a San Francisco publisher will publish “For the Pleasure of His Company.”

1902-1903

Laid low by inflammatory rheumatism, enters Georgetown University Hospital. In April, 1903, leaves Washington and the Kid behind. Stays in Atlantic City with Ned McGeorge’s family, then heads for New York with Ned. Later moves out of McGeorge’s apartment to 87th St.

1903, June

Suffering from “nervous prostration,” goes to Cambridge with Willie Woodworth. Lives with Woodworth at 149 Brattle Street among Woodworth’s exotic furnishings.

1903, Fall

Disenchanted, moves to nearby Prescott Hall. Is found unconscious and is diagnosed with “brain congestion.” Rallies in February,1904, after reports he is dying. Moves back to Woodworth’s house. Starts writing for National Magazine in Boston.

1904, Fall

“The Island of Tranquil Delights” is published. It is a bit less veiled about his homosexuality.

1905, April 5

Arrives in San Francisco and stays with sister Sarah on Baker Street. April 13, Bohemian Club plans “Welcome Home” dinner with Woodworth, Enrico Caruso and Henry James attending.

1905, Mid-May

Moves to Atherton to visit Fred Henshaw at “El Nido.” Visits San Francisco in June where he falls in love with Edwin McKenzie. Not feeling well, he checks into a sanitarium. After feeling better, moves to Monterey where he rents “Casa Verde,” an apartment near the water. Writes articles. Unsuccessful in finding a “Kid” he turns to older men. Meets George Sterling, a Bohemian who’s unhappily married. Sterling, unfortunately, is more interested in Jack London, the writer. London corresponds with Stoddard in a friendly and affectionate way, then gets married.

1905, Fall

Visits Joaquin Miller’s home above Fruitvale in the Piedmont Hills.

1905-1906, Winter

Spends most of winter in Monterey, traveling to missions in San Jose, San Juan Batista and Santa Clara. Writes articles on missions for Sunset magazine. Stays in sanitarium in San Jose with his masseur and another patient. Moves into a boarding house in Saratoga. While at Santa Clara College, he meets Edwin McKenzie’s younger brother, Harry, and feels an attraction that is returned for a while. Returns to Monterey where he’s affected by grippe and rheumatism in addition to money problems. Visits friends in Carmel but likes it in Monterey at Casa Verde where he tells listeners dramatic monologues. Writes some 100 letters a month, nearly all in public ink, his trademark. Writes of his need for a “Kid” for comfort and consolation.

1906, April 18

The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. According to Ina Coolbrith who later edited a book of all the known poems by Stoddard, virtually all the files of local magazines and newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle, were destroyed. Interestingly, Stoddard evidently does not comment on the earthquake in his papers.

1909, January

Crippled by rheumatism and sometimes staying in bed all day, he starts feeling too worn to write anymore, feels life is ending. A doctor says he has heart disease.

1909, April 23

Stoddard suffers fatal heart attack at age 65. Is buried in Catholic cemetery in Monterey. He has burned many of his effects, papers and manuscripts.